


As Yet Untitled

by Tea_and_Deerstalkers



Category: Game Grumps, Real Person Fiction
Genre: Blow Jobs, Break Up, Cutesy, Daddy Kink, Dating, Denial of Feelings, Developing Relationship, Don't Judge Me, Early Days, F/M, Feels, Friendship/Love, I Don't Even Know, Oral Sex, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other Youtubers, Shy Danny, Singing, Slow Build, commitment issues, hidden messages, music references
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-25
Updated: 2016-02-29
Packaged: 2018-04-28 04:10:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 47
Words: 58,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5077240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tea_and_Deerstalkers/pseuds/Tea_and_Deerstalkers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan meets a girl at an open mic night and falls quickly and messily in love. This has some commitment issue angst and some really cute fluffy moments.<br/>I don't know, I liked this idea after binge watching Game Grumps for a few weeks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dude, who is she?

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't judge me... this is just something I wrote for fun...

"Dan has a lady friend that he won't tell me about," Arin said casually during a recording session when they had run out of things to mock in the game. It was a load of nothing that they were probably going to fast forward through soon, so he decided to spice things up.  
"Arin, shush" Danny hissed, shoving his friend quickly.  
"He met her at an open mic night... and he's really fangirling over her" Arin chuckled, leaning away as he continued to play and talk. "I have no idea what she looks like, how old she is... she could be a man for all I know" He giggled as Dan slapped his leg hard, causing him to bump the mic.  
"Dude, I mean it. Shut up" He groaned, hiding his face a little.  
"I don't know why you're so embarrassed. It's adorable. You're a grown man and you're blushing over this" Arin grinned, shoving his friend back playfully.  
Dan glanced at the timer and was thankful that it was nearing the 16-minute mark.  
"Yeah well, next time on Game Grumps, Arin shuts his damn mouth" Dan muttered.  
Arin stopped the recording and frowned, turning to his friend.  
"What's the matter?" He asked "Are you really mad about me talking about that?"  
"No.. I'm not mad" Dan sighed, ruffling his hair a little. "I just... I haven't really talked to this girl yet... only a few times, in between sets and that... And I don't want her to like, look me up and see us talking about her if it isn't going anywhere..."  
"It's okay dude, I won't talk about it if you don't want me to..." Arin frowned, patting his friend's shoulder.  
"I mean... you know, if it goes nowhere, and people are still commenting for weeks like 'tell us more' then it's really gonna bum me out..." he sighed, looking up at his friend.  
"Yeah no, I understand" Arin smiled.

Later that evening, after a few more recordings, Dan grabbed his bag and checked his phone.  
"Are you going to that bar tonight?" Arin asked.  
"Yeah... I think I'm gonna sing tonight" Danny smiled, his cheeks flushing a little at the thought. "It's a kind of silly Halloween night so there'll be a few people doing stuff from movies all dressed up..."  
"That's awesome, do you know if that girl's gonna be there?" Arin grinned back, grabbing his jacket.  
"I don't know... I think so... her friend works at the bar, so she's there most nights apparently..." Dan mumbled, biting his lip a little as he made sure he had everything.  
"Hey, listen... If you're singing tonight, you maybe want me to come along? Me and Suzy could come along for some drinks..." Arin offered, partially wanting to hear Dan sing, but partially because he wanted to see the girl his friend was going crazy over.  
"Uh... I mean, if you want to come along, you guys can..." Dan swallowed.  
"Cool, text me the place and I'll meet you with Suzy later" Arin grinned, grabbing his bag and heading out, leaving Dan to get the bus back to his apartment.  
After spending way too long picking out an outfit before finally setting on a tight shirt, a pair of ripped jeans and his leather jacket. He wasn't singing anything special for Halloween anyway... He took one last look in the mirror, fluffing up his hair before heading out with his guitar.

He got to the bar and almost walked out the moment he spotted her at the bar. Sure they had awesome conversations between sets, but did that mean she actually thought he was interesting? Was she just humoring him? He was about to find a seat hidden in the back when her eyes met his. He was the tallest guy in the bar, he didn't know why he thought he would be able to blend in...  
She immediately sat up a little at the bar, waving at him. Dan made his way over, moving his guitar from his back and clutching it to his chest as he made his way through the crowd.  
"Hey you!" She grinned pulling out the bar stool beside her. She was just as stunning as he remembered. Even in a long black coat and beanie hat. Her long ginger hair peeking out under it.  
"Hey," Dan grinned, looking around to see if there were any free tables away from the stage.  
"are you really singing tonight?" She grinned, touching his arm to get his attention again.  
"Uh... yeah, I..." he swallowed, grinning back. "I mean I said I would last time..."  
"I thought you were just like... saying that so I'd come back" She giggled, playing with her ponytail.  
"Well..." Dan blushed, biting his lip a little. Suddenly the band playing finished their song and the club filled with applause.  
"Oh shoot, I'm up after the next set!" She gasped, jumping off her stool. "Listen, save my space and... I hope you like the song I chose..." she grinned, squeezing Dan's hand and running off towards the backstage door.  
Dan sat down on her stool and watched as she disappeared, still squeezing his hand into a tight fist. Just as he was about to order a drink, he heard Arin calling him. He managed to wade through the crowd quickly.  
"So where is she?" Arin asked, grabbing the stool beside him and saving it for Suzie who quickly followed.  
"She's getting ready, she's up after this next person" Dan smiled shyly. The next singer had already started and just played in the background as Dan readied himself to hear her sing again.  
"So come on man, what's her name?" Arin asked, nudging Dan's leg and pulling him out of his thoughts.  
"Uh... Catherine... her name's Catherine..." Dan grinned, looking back over at the door.  
"Awh... I remember when you used to look like that when you talked about me" Suzy giggled, leaning against Arin's shoulder.  
"Ugh, why didn't someone shoot me?" Arin teased, making a gagging noise. "He looks sick"  
"Yeah, lovesick" Suzy poked her friend in the side, causing Dan to jump. "So come on, tell us some more about her..."  
"Well uh... I met her a few months back, she was singing and I thought it was awesome and I just... went up to her afterwards and complimented her... and we got chatting" Dan explained "She seemed nice, and I wanted to keep coming back..."  
"You stalked her" Arin smirked.  
"Shut up" Suzy sighed "Go on, Dan"  
"Well... she was always asking me to get up a sing, and I put it off and put it off... and then I started feeling creepy because the only time I saw her was when I was watching her on stage... I'm honestly starting to feel like a groupie..." He chuckled nervously.  
"No, it's nice..." Suzy smiled, touching his arm reassuringly. I can't wait to meet her..."


	2. Act 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catherine's turn to sing, and Dan gets a pretty nice surprise from his sweet lady friend.

Finally, the set ended, by which point, Dan was practically shaking in his seat. Suzy and Arin just smiling as they waited to finally see the girl Dan was clearly head over heels for. Suddenly the lights dimmed and the sound of a mic being tapped echoed around the room.  
"Ladies and Gentlemen... may I call your attention to the stage" Someone's voice, possibly the DJ's announced. "Please put your hands together for our regular songbird, the lovely Catherine Mayer!" A spotlight opened on the curtains of the stage and Catherine's voice purred over the speakers. "You had plenty of money, 1922"  
"Oh fuck" Dan swallowed, suddenly gripping Arin's arm that was resting next to his on the bar.  
The bass rumbled through him as the curtain parted a little and Catherine stepped out in the classic 'Jessica Rabbit' dress, sparkling in the spotlight as she sauntered to the front of the stage. She had a vintage chromed microphone in one hand, playing with the cable in the other.  
"She's gorgeous" he heard Suzie mutter beside him as he watched her sway her hips to the song. But her eyes didn't meet his once. Her gaze scanning the audience, almost skipping over his entirely.  
"Why don't you do right, like some other men do?" She sighed, running her hands through her hair and down her sides, earning a few wolf whistles from the audience.  
"Dude, no wonder you've been going crazy over her..." Arin smirked, elbowing Dan a little.  
"No... I mean... I've never seen her like this before... this isn't her kind of music" Dan swallowed thickly, talking very softly despite the noise, not wanting to miss a moment of her singing. She had sauntered over to the large pillar on one side of the stage, pressing her back against it before sliding down a little, biting her lip as she stood again, heavily swaying her hips again as she went.  
"Now if you had prepared 20 years ago, You wouldn't be a wandering now from door to door. Why don't you do right, like some other men do?..." She reached out, taking a few men's hands, winking at a few as she went, singing all the while. But Dan knew already what was coming in the song as she almost glided accross the stage to put the microphone into the stand. "Why don't you do right..." Her voice running through Dan like electricity, making his hairs stand on end. Then suddenly her eyes met his, with all her passion and energy burning through them. "like some other men... do..." and with that she sauntered back of the stage and the lights went out. The club erupting into applause. Dan was too stunned to move as Arin and Suzy jumped up to cheer.

It wasn't until the next band started setting up that Dan tried to shake himself from his thoughts.  
"Holy crap, she was amazing!" Arin grinned "Dan, she's awesome!"  
"I... yeah..." he swallowed, spinning back to look at the bar. "Man, I've never seen her perform like that"  
"Never? She's got an amazing voice. What does she normally sing?" Suzy asked, leaning into him a little.  
"Like... I don't know, her friend normally plays with her, it's always popular crap like Ed Sheeran that the crowd likes, but when she does it, it sounds amazing..."  
"Well, she needs to let that out more often..." Arin grinned, ordering them all another round of drinks.  
Suddenly the stage door opened and Catherine came bounding out. Back in normal clothes, but still wearing her Jessica makeup and hair.  
"Oh my god that was insane!" She screamed, wrapping her arms around Dan. "The room went crazy, I nearly died up there!"  
"You were fucking ace up there tonight" Dan chuckled nervously as she pulled him into another hug.  
"Dude! Feel how crazy hard my heart is beating!" She grabbed his hand, pressing it to her chest. Dan could feel her heart thudding against his palm, but his mind was wandering into dangerous territory. Luckily Suzy pulled him from his thoughts.  
"Hey, you were great up there" She smiled, appearing beside him.  
"Oh, thanks" Catherine blushed, letting go of Dan's hand, suddenly looking very shy.  
"Where did you get your dress? It was beautiful" Suzy continued, Dan thankful for her distraction as he quickly turned to take his drink from Arin, their eyes meeting for a moment. Arin could tell just how nervous Dan felt, understanding entirely just how worked up he was.  
"I made it myself" Catherine muttered.  
"No way!" Suzy gasped, looking to Dan as if to prompt him to introduce her.  
"Oh... Cat, this is my friend Suzy and her husband Arin... I work with them" Dan smiled, gesturing to his friends.  
"Oh..." Cathrine blinked, her expression unreadable for a moment. "Did Dan bring you along tonight?"  
"We invited ourselves, Dan told us he's singing tonight and we wanted to be here to support him" Arin smiled, wrapping an arm around Suzy's waist.  
"Oh yeah!" Catherine gasped, turning to Dan "When are you up? What are you singing?" Dan grinned, running a hand through his hair.  
"In a while I think, there weren't many spaces left when I signed up" He mumbled  
"What are you singing?" She grinned, biting her lip a little.  
"Uh... I don't want to give it away" Dan smirked, glancing away for a second before meeting her eyes.  
"Oh come on, at least tell me what film it's from" Catherine pressed. Dan chuckled nervously thinking to himself for a moment.  
"Uh... Lawn Dogs?" he muttered, almost too quietly to hear.  
"What's that?" Catherine frowned, tilting her head a little.  
"Yeah, I've never heard of that film" Suzie matched her confused expression, the pair turning to Arin to see if he'd heard of it.  
"Ah, it's not a famous movie..." Dan shrugged "Should I have picked something else?"  
"Will I know the song?" Catherine asked, turning back to him.  
"Yeah... for sure" Dan smiled "I mean, probably... the song itself is pretty popular"  
"Oh come on, tell us what it is!" Arin grinned.  
"You'll hear it in a minute, I'm gonna go check when I'm up" he sighed, grinning at his friend before touching Catherine's hand as a small goodbye before heading off to check the lineup for tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did you like this? no? I'm sorry...
> 
> The song was Why don't you do right, Jessica Rabbit's version...


	3. Act 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan's turn to sing, and Catherine gets to know Arin a little better

It turned out that Dan was up after the next two bands and decided to head backstage so he could get ready. He didn't usually get nervous at open mic night, but this was different, he was performing to actually impress Catherine, he didn't care what anyone else thought, and as it was, his song choice was kind of ballsy. He just hoped it went down well.

Back at the bar, Catherine was still chatting to Suzie about costume design when Arin cut in   
"So how long have you and Dan been friends?"   
Catherine smiled, shaking her head a little.  
"I don't know, a few months now?" she chuckled. "We started talking after shows, just sharing compliments, but the guy has some real talent... It's sad I rarely get to hear him sing"   
"Dude, he sings all the time, it's like his job" Arin huffed a laugh, earning an elbow from Suzie.  
"Really?" Catherine blinked  
"Yeah, what did he tell you he did?" Suzie asked.  
"Well, he never really said..." Catherine frowned, playing with the sleeve of her coat. "We never really get to talk long enough for that kind of conversation"  
"Well..." Suzie frowned back, glancing at her husband. "It's not like his main job, more like a side... main project thing he does with a few friends..." She winced at her own awful explanation.  
"So what does he do?" Catherine asked.  
"He does gaming videos with me" Arin grinned, looking up from his drink. "We've been doing it for a while now, we're on YouTube"  
"Oh, that's cool. I was never really into YouTube... I mean, not as an adult" Catherine explained. "I've been trying to get back into it, only because a few other people I sing with say it's a good way to get yourself out there. It's really changed since I was little..." Arin grinned, taking a sip of his soda.  
"Little huh?... how old are you?" He asked, earning another jab from his wife.  
"Babe, you can't just ask that!" she hissed, grinning at him.  
"Sure I can, that's called equality, I thought girls were really into that stuff" He smirked, shaking his head a little. "I'm sorry, Catherine, you don't have to answer if you don't want to"  
"Ah, not that young, honestly..." Catherine shrugged, grinning back at him. "I'm 27... so I was about 17 when youtube started?"  
"Man, it's been that long?" Arin blinked, chuckling a little. "Shit..."  
"Yeah, I mean, I remember the days of Newgrounds, then that just faded into the background..." Cathrine sighed happily.   
"Oh, you like Newgrounds?" Arin asked, Suzy eyeing him for a moment.  
"Man, it was all I did when I was younger, just come home from school and watch animations on there" Catherine hummed, playing with the straw in her drink. "Some of the spoof videos on there were just legendary..."  
"Oh yeah?" Arin swallowed down a chuckle. "Like uh... what ones? Can you remember any titles?"  
"Oh man, for the life of me, I can't remember who did them... which sucks because they were just so good... but there were like these animations, they were kinda sketchy, but who the hell cares, they were some of the funniest things. They were like spoofs of Zelda and Final Fantasy..." Arin, by this point, was busting a blood vessel trying not to laugh and Catherine finally noticed. "Dude, what?" She asked, frowning a little. Arin suddenly burst out laughing, quickly calming himself though so he didn't upset her further.  
"Oh gosh... Those are mine" he grinned "I'm egoraptor"   
"Are you fucking serious?" Catherine gasped, grinning up at him.  
"Yeah... shit, those take me back... I mean, I should be pissed about the whole sketchy thing, but man, it was like 2007..."  
"This is crazy, so now you do like actual gaming videos?" Catherine smiled.  
"Oh I still do animations, but yeah, most of my time is gaming or writing music with dan" Arin hummed.  
"Shit, seriously?" Catherine beamed wider "Dan didn't tell me any of this"  
"I guess he just enjoyed a different kind of attention for once" Suzy smiled "It's not every day he meets a sweet girl with similar interests and doesn't know who he is" Catherine smiled and nodded, glancing back at the stage as the announcer stepped up.  
"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage Mr. Dan Avidan" He stepped off as people applauded Dan's entrance. Catherine's eyes were glued on the stage, but she could hear Suzy and Arin mumbling behind her.  
"I heard him practicing a few songs, I have no idea what he's gonna do tonight"  
"Yeah, what did he say? Lawn Dogs?"   
"Yeah, but it's popular..."  
Catherine tuned them out as dan took his place on a stool they'd brought on stage for him. The lights dimmed a little and Dan started to play. After the first few chords, she knew exactly what song it was.

"Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell... Jimmy Rogers on the Victrola up high"  
There was already a small applause ringing out as Dan sang, his voice was deep and rumbling as he just stared down at his own hands.  
"Mama's dancin' with baby on her shoulder... The sun is settin' like molasses in the sky"  
"Fuck, I miss hearing him sing serious shit..." Arin sighed behind her, but Catherine was too focused.  
"The girl could sing, knew how to move, everything... Always wanting more, he'd leave you longing for!" Dan stood up, leaning in closer to the mic. "Black velvet and that little girl's smile. Black velvet with that slow southern style. A new religion that'll bring ya to your knees... Black velvet if you please..." Dan stepped back a little, putting more into his actual playing before continuing. Catherine was in awe, she hadn't seen him take open mic night this seriously since they'd met. It was mesmerising watching the way he handled the stage, the way his voice wrapped around her, and the subtle change to the lyrics.  
"Every word of every song that she sang was for you... In a flash he was gone, it happened so soon" He paused, meeting her eyes "What could you do?..." Dan continued the song, but Catherine felt a flush up her neck that caused her to lose focus a little as it came to a close. The place erupted into an applause and Dan left the stage, leaving Arin and Suzy talking beside her.  
"Man, that was awesome" Arin grinned, shaking his head. "I know he can sing, but there's just something about watching him do it live, and like... so serious... I have the weirdest boner right now" Suzy just groaned, and shoved her beloved husband away a little, turning to Catherine.  
"So what did you think?" she grinned, but could already tell from the expression.  
"That was amazing" She sighed, still looking at the stage. Suddenly the man himself appeared next to her. "You were awesome!" She screamed, wrapping her arms around his neck.  
"Woah... really?" he grinned, wrapping his arms around her for a moment before letting her go. "You liked it?"  
"I loved it!" Catherine gushed.  
"Yeah dude, she's a total groupie now, she was trying to sneak past security to jump you backstage" Arin grinned, nudging her a little. Catherine blushed but didn't say a word as he just looked up at him.  
"I'm glad you liked it, a lot of people seemed to like it... Thank god I didn't fuck up on guitar..." Dan grinned, running a hand through his mess of hair.  
"This was awesome, you totally have to do this more" Catherine smiled.  
"Yeah, not she knows you've got a total celebrity as a bestie, she's gonna be all over you" Arin sighed, fanning himself.  
"What celebrity?" Dan blinked, smirking at him.  
"She's a total ego-fangirl" Suzy grinned, causing Catherine's cheeks to go even redder. "No, no... don't be embarrassed, it's awesome! We should really meet up some time, everyone get to know each other"  
"That would be nice" Catherine smiled, glancing up at Dan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Dan sang was indeed Black Velvet by Alannah Myles
> 
> Damn this chapter is a lot longer, I just couldn't find a good place to leave it...


	4. If you liked, rate 5 stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan lets work get in the way of things but tries to fix it with a bad cover video

Sadly, after that show, things started getting a lot busier with Dan's multiple channels. He hadn't had the chance to get down to the club in time to see Catherine perform and it was partially eating him up inside. He knew it was affecting his work a little, he wasn't as cheery as he usually was, and Arin was the first to notice.  
"Dude, don't you have her number or something?" He asked, setting up for another recording session.  
"No, I have her email..." Dan sighed, running his eyes from lack of sleep.  
"Then fucking email her dude, geez... you go crazy over her and then fall off the face of the earth..." Arin frowned, looking for the controllers he knew that worked.  
"And say what?" Dan huffed "Hey... it's that looser from the bar, the one that you haven't seen in months. I'm here to be a total creep again" He sighed, falling back against the couch.  
"If you're going to be a douche, I'm not recording with you. I'll do something else with Ross..." Arin snapped, turning to his friend. Dan sighed again, shaking his head.  
"I'm sorry Arin..." he mumbled, "I'm just pissed because I think I've fucked things up... And I could've had a good thing there..."  
"Then go back to that club and tell her" Arin frowned, sitting down on the couch with him.  
"I don't have time to do that, I don't have time for this conversation!" Dan groaned. "I've got to film this, then get home and keep working on NSP shit..." Arin huffed loudly, running a hand through his hair.  
"Then record something for her..." he mumbled, looking back at him.  
"What?" Dan huffed back, turning to his friend.  
"Record yourself singing something meaningful and shit, and send it to her..." Arin explained.  
"Dude, I don't have the time to do that..." Dan mumbled, but Arin cut him off.  
"You don't need to record anything fucking crazy... she's nostalgic as fuck, record her a shitty cover on your webcam and email it to her..." Arin sighed, smiling a little.  
"Arin, I seriously don't have time for that..." Dan frowned, causing Arin to frown back at him.  
"Then fucking lose her... I don't care, either way, you need to sort this out, because we have work to do..." Arin snapped, getting sick of Dan moping around and not doing anything.  
Dan could clearly see he'd said the wrong thing and sighed, just sitting in silence for a moment before getting up.  
"Where are you going?" Arin asked, looking up at him.  
"To record a shitty 2008 song on my webcam and send it to Cat..." Dan mumbled, walking out of the room. Even with their huge workload, Arin knew this was going to help his friend... he couldn't stand to see him unhappy, and had never really seen him sad over a girl.

 

Arin had decided on doing a few videos with Ross so they could get something ticked off their list. After a few hours, Dan reappeared, waiting for Arin to shut off the recording before he came in and sat down with his friends.  
"I think that's enough for one day, thanks, Ross..." Arin sighed, grinning at the younger man.  
"Yeah, this was fun... hope I didn't really piss you off" he mumbled.  
"Nah man, it's for the cameras... it was good" Arin assured him.  
"Listen, Ross... could you give me and Arin some space for a bit?" Dan finally butted in, turning to him.  
"Sure thing buddy..." he smiled, grabbing his water bottle before leaving them alone.  
"So?" Arin smiled, looking up at his friend as he took a sip of his own water.  
"I recorded one of the shittiest emo love songs I could find on youtube..." Dan mumbled "Thought I'd get your opinion before I send it..."  
"Yeah, sure thing man, show me" Arin grinned, sitting up a little. Dan pulled out his phone and opened the unlisted video he'd posted on his youtube channel. He pressed play and Arin immediately groaned at the lighting and Dan's hair which he'd pulled over his face in an awful side fringe/combover.  
"Perfect" he grinned, wincing as the video actually started playing.  
"I know..." Dan chuckled as he watched himself look at the camera.

"Okay... I'm just gonna do this shit..." Dan mumbled, mainly to himself on the video. Arin cursed under his breath when the loud clicks of Dan pressing play on his laptop could be heard. Then there was a crackly intro of a song before Dan started singing.  
"Today is a winding road that's taking me to places that I didn't want to go... Whoa... Today in the blink of an eye I'm holding on to something and I do not know why... I tried..." Arin shook his head, suppressing a giggle as he turned to look at his friend as the song played. It was a seriously mopey tune for a love song, and it really screamed 'old youtube'. Then the chorus came in and it picked up a little.  
"Your voice was the soundtrack of my summer, do you know you're unlike any other? You'll always be my thunder, and I said Your eyes are the brightest of all the colors, I don't wanna ever love another. You'll always be my thunder. So bring on the rain, and bring on the thunder..."  
The pair sat in silence as the video played, it finally ending with Dan almost dropping his webcam as he adjusted it. Finally, it stopped and Arin just sighed, beaming at his friend.  
"That was perfect... send it to her now" he grinned.  
"Really?" Dan winced "It's painful to watch... but I kind of see what you mean by nostalgic youtube..."  
"Yeah, dude... she's gonna love it..." Arin smirked.  
"Okay," Dan nodded before sending Catherine the link, no subject line or message to go with it, just the link.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song was Thunder by Boys like Girls.
> 
> I know Danny loves his classics, and so do I, but the idea of doing a mopey emo cover song seems so fucking cute it's unbelievable. Plus, I miss the days of emo slideshow vids on youtube, proper 2008 stuff.


	5. Video Response

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan gets a reply to his video...

After not seeing Dan for so long, Catherine was starting to consider giving up doing the open mic night. She loved singing, but something about not having someone to really sing to took the fun out of it... When she explained this to her friend, she was outraged.  
"You can't just quit singing!" She gasped  
"I'm not quitting, I just don't want to do this anymore..." she frowned, gesturing to the stage.  
"Then don't... you've been talking about doing Youtube since that weird guy started hanging around..." Her friend frowned, causing Catherine to glare.  
"He wasn't weird... he was sweet, and had an amazing voice..." She grumbled.  
"Yeah, he was a sweet singer, but guys move on... it's shit sometimes, but it happens" the woman sighed, shaking her head.

That was a few months back, since then, Catherine has given Youtube a shot, uploading a few covers. She already had a decent recording setup from previous singing projects, she just needed to get reacquainted with it all. For the most part, she got a good response, bringing in a few subscribers in the first few months, quickly reaching a couple of hundred. It all seemed to be going fine until one day she got an email, no subject line or text, just a link. She opened it up and it took her to an unlisted video on the NSP youtube channel. She was a little confused before the video started playing, but she quickly shifted all her focus to the man on the screen.  
The video itself was terrible, the song was whiny and the sound was awful... But the way Dan looked into the camera every now and then really tugged at her heart. She quickly checked the date, it was uploaded the day she'd received it... had he really recorded it just for her? What did she do now? Record something back? What did this even mean? Couldn't he just come and talk to her? She had too many questions in her head, so, for now, she decided to check some of Dan's other music.

"So did she reply or anything?" Arin asked as he grabbed his jacket from his chair. They'd finished their recording session and everyone was heading home for the evening when he caught his friend checking his phone.  
"No... but the video has views on it, so I guess she watched it?" Dan mumbled, sounding a little less upset.  
"Well, that's something..." Arin mumbled, checking his own phone. "Listen, it's going to work itself out... you just need to keep up your end... I know it's hard and all, but dude, if you like this girl, you'll find some way to fit her in... I had to" He looked over at his wife, gathering up her own things.  
"I know..." Dan sighed, he was about to leave the building when he refreshed the page again, seeing the video had a comment, it was just a smiley face, but the video was unlisted, it could only have been her... He clicked through to a channel that seemed fairly new, but not bad for a beginner. He could immediately see from the thumbnails that it was her page. But there was a new upload, something that in no way could be for anyone else.  
"Arin..." Dan called his friend over to him. Arin leaned over to look at the screen, to the video that was just called 'Daniel'.  
Dan pulled out his headphones and hit play, the video was of a lot better quality, and Catherine was just smiling to the camera as the music came in.  
"Daniel is traveling tonight on a plane... I can see the red tail lights heading for Spain... Oh and I can see Daniel waving goodbye... God, it looks like Daniel, must be the clouds in my eyes" He could hear her voice breaking a little as she stopped looking directly into the camera, her hands playing with the microphone stand. Daniel took in the rest of the room she was recording in. It looked like her room, but everything had been dressed nicely for a recording, it was very 'beauty guru' with the fairy lights and Kath Kidson sheets, but everything was very worn and distressed, the wood on her dressers had chipped paint, and there were a few taxidermy pieces behind her. He realized he had been distracted from the song when he suddenly heard a little squeak from her, realizing she was almost crying.  
"Lord I miss Daniel, oh I miss him so much..." She shook her head a little. "Daniel my dear... you are older than me. Do you still feel the pain of the scars that won't heal... Your eyes have died but you see more than I... Daniel you're a star in the face of the sky" Daniel just let the rest of the song play, just letting the message in the song sink in... She missed him? She genuinely missed him, and wasn't pissed with him for disappearing?... Once the video was finished, the room was silent, he turned and realized that Suzy had joined the two of them.  
"That was really nice..." She mumbled, looking up at him. "You should go and see her..."  
"Suz... I have so much to do with Starbomb and NSP right now..." Dan started, but Suzy just sighed, walking away and leaving him with Arin.  
"You've been given a second chance... go and fucking get her, Arin said simply before following her. Dan stood there for a moment before liking and subscribing to her channel. He needed to go home and think...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song was Daniel by Elton John.
> 
> I'm sorry, there's going to be more dialogue and plot soon. Just stick with it, it's going to get a lot better!


	6. I didn't expect to see you here

It was a long shot, but part of Catherine hoped that Dan would be at the bar tonight. She knew that really hadn't been the message she'd given, but she desperately wanted to see him.  
She sat at the bar, replying to some of the comments on her new cover when she noticed she had a new subscriber. She clicked through to her list and saw that NSP had subscribed to her videos. A small wave of relief washed over her, at least, she knew he'd seen the video, and if anything, he liked what he'd seen... However, it didn't mean that he was going to try and see her again...  
She figured with all his channels, he was just too busy, and she understood. After starting her own channel, she realized how hard it is to just get content up a few times a week, let alone three to four a day, on top of maintaining two bands... She wasn't mad at him, just sad that he'd disappeared so suddenly.

After a few hours at the bar, Catherine was seriously considering going home, when someone tapped her shoulder. She turned to see Dan stood behind her, with an unsure expression.  
"Hi..." he muttered, looking into her round, hazel eyes.  
"Hi..." she muttered back, smiling up at him. He sat down on the stool beside her and took her hand.  
"Listen... I'm sorry..." He started, but Catherine held up a hand.  
"It's okay... I know" She sighed, grinning at him. "You don't have to be sorry..."  
"I do... I mean, I didn't say anything, I just disappeared... and after introducing you to my friends... it was a dick move, I'm sorry" He swallowed.  
"I must admit, I was sad, after meeting them..." she mumbled, "They seemed really nice, and now I've seen your videos and how close you all are..."  
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you that I sing professionally..." he muttered.  
"That's okay" she grinned "It's kind of obvious..." Dan chuckled softly.  
"And I'm sorry for not messaging you..." He continued "At first, I was just so busy... and the longer I left it, the more awkward it became..."  
"I know what you mean" Catherine nodded, stroking a thumb over his knuckles. They shared a quiet moment before he spoke again.  
"Are you singing tonight?" he asked.  
"No... to be honest, I was about to go home, I didn't think I'd see you here tonight" She smiled, biting her lip a little. "But I'm glad I did..."  
"Me too..." Dan swallowed. "I saw your video, and I was just at home wracking my brain over what to do... I have so much shit to do with upcoming shoots and there's so much more that needs to be done for one of our albums... but all I could think about is you..." Catherine felt her cheeks flush a little, grinning at him.  
"What?" he smiled innocently.  
"You're a complete dork..." she chuckled, shoving him a little.  
"Shh! It'll ruin my image" He grinned, chuckling with her.  
"Oh I know all about your image now, Mr. Sexbang..." she smirked. "From what I've heard, I'm in for a good time with you..." Dan sighed, shaking his head.  
"Look... I... I want this to be a thing, I want to be a thing with you... and I know it's gonna be hard with work and all..." he explained, trying to be a little more serious.  
"I want this to be a thing too... and I know you're very busy..." Catherine smiled, squeezing his hand. Dan went to say something, but Catherine held up a hand again to stop him. "And I want you to know something... I know the world of music... and I'm starting to understand the world of YouTube... and I want you to know that I don't need to see you every second of every day, or hear from you morning, noon and night..." She leaned in a little, taking his other hand. "Just... keep me in the loop, and let me know you're alive from time to time..." Dan sighed, frowning a little.  
"That's not fair on you" he frowned.  
"Don't tell me what's not fair on me!" She snapped, grinning at him. "You said you're working on an album at the moment, and a few video shoots?" She asked and Dan nodded. "So this isn't your normal level of work..." Dan shook his head "Then when this is over... and there's a calm in the storm... we'll be able to spend more time together... and I will look forward to that time"  
"But... I don't want it to feel like I'm putting work before you... or putting you ahead of all my work..." Dan groaned, reverting back to the fears he'd been battling before he'd even left the house.  
"Just think of it as a long distance relationship, without the distance..." Catherine smiled, looking up at him. "I may not always be able to see you, but when I do, we'll make the most of it..." Dan sighed shaking his head for a moment.  
"Are you honestly happy with that?..." he asked  
"As long as I get to see you, I'm happy" She grinned. Dan groaned a little, squeezing her hands back.  
"Okay... okay we'll try it your way..." he frowned, he really didn't think it was going to work out, but at this point, he had no other options to make it work. But this was better than nothing, and Catherine seemed to be happy...  
"Now..." Catherine smiled, glancing back up at his face. "I think you have somewhere to be..." Dan blinked out of his thoughts, looking down at her.  
"What?" he mumbled. Catherine leaned up and pecked him on the cheek.  
"Go and get some work done... the sooner it's over, the sooner I can spend time with you..." She hummed, sitting back in her seat. She pulled out her phone and typed out an email with her number before sending it to him. "Text me when there's a free moment, and don't forget about me"  
"Wait... I wanted to give myself this evening to come and see you" Dan frowned, looking up at her.  
"It's like 10 o'clock..." Catherine grinned, showing him her phone. "You're not on a normal time schedule are you?" Dan looked at the time and sighed, shaking his head.  
"Are you serious that you want to be with my useless ass?" He mumbled.  
"I happen to quite like your useless ass" Catherine grinned, taking his hand again. "Come on, I'll walk you to your car... I need some sleep before work tomorrow..."  
Dan stood with her as they made their way to the door.   
"I never asked what you do..." he mumbled, still holding her hand.  
"I'm a nursery teacher" She hummed, swinging their arms a little.  
"So you look after babies?" Dan blinked down at her as she nodded.  
"Yeah... it's an awesome job..." She sighed, looking up at the street lights. "Been doing it now for about 6 years?"  
"Wow... I'm impressed... that's an actual worthwhile job" Dan chuckled.  
"Oh shush... if it weren't for people like you making videos, I'd go insane on my time off..." Catherine sighed.  
"So you've really watched my videos?" asked, stopping by his car. "What ones?"  
"Hm... I looked up Arin, I wanted to see how far his animations had come... and then, of course, I found you on Game Grumps... which then led me to Starbomb... which led me to NSP..." She grinned, tilting her head just a little.  
"So..." Dan swallowed "What did you think?" Catherine just giggled for a moment at his worried tone.  
"They were fun... I really liked them... and I can see what Arin meant when he said he missed hearing you sing serious stuff..." Catherine explained. Dan just chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck.   
"Yeah... I know my stuff is pretty weird... the humor is rude as fuck, but it really is aimed at younger people..." he sighed, looking away for a moment. Catherine smirked, tugging on his shirt.  
"Do you ever take a moment, and look up at the stars? And think about your life and just how stupid you are? If it makes you feel better, I'm a fucking rock star..." She sang, a lot softer than the original, but it made Dan grin as he turned back to her.  
"Been thinking about my amazing penis much?" He smirked, raising an eyebrow.  
"Hm..." Catherine smirked, playing with the hem of his shirt. "Go home, Mr. Sexbang... text me when you get a free moment..." And with that she walked away, leaving Dan by his car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I tried not to have any music, but I had to XD
> 
> There was a tiny verse from Everybody Shut Up (I have an erection) by NSP


	7. Making Friends

"So you guys are talking again?" Suzy grinned, leaning over the couch to read Dan's phone.  
"Yeah..." Dan mumbled, looking up at her. "I mean... she told me that it was okay being busy with work right now, just as long as I keep her up to date on how things are going..."  
"And have you been?" Suzy asked, moving to sit beside him.  
"Yeah, I text her all the time, she's been telling me about her own projects and stuff..." he sighed, turning to his friend. "But... is this fair? I feel like this isn't fair on her..." Suzy thought for a while before sighing to herself.  
"Well... I've done long distance before... me and Arin did it for four years..." She explained, "As long as you can both put the effort in, it can work... I know it's hard when it seems like you don't even have enough time to sleep... but all it takes is a few messages to let that person know you're still thinking about them..." Dan huffed, looking back at his phone.  
"So what is she up to? Arin told me she's got a youtube channel" Suzy grinned, leaning in to see his messages. Dan sat up a little, smiling.  
"Yeah... she's done some pretty sweet covers, there's also some clothing and makeup videos..." He explained, watching Suzy's expression change. "What?"  
"Every time you talk about her, you just gush about her... It's adorable" She sighed, getting to her feet. "Send her channel to me, I wanna watch some of her videos"

After Dan had sent the link, he had to get back to work. But Suzy's schedule was clear for an hour or so, so she took the time to check out Catherine's channel. Dan was right, some of the covers were really amazing, but Suzy was more interested in her costume videos. The girl had some serious talent, it was really nice to see. And from the looks of the comments, she seemed to have a decent fan base, but she knew from her own experience that comments were never an indicator. After a few more videos, Suzy realized a pattern emerging. Catherine was constantly asking people to do projects with her, but from the looks for things, she wasn't getting any interest. It was a shame, she seemed very sweet, and for someone just starting off, a collab was exactly what she needed. Suzy decided to subscribe and leave a comment on one of her more gothic videos, nothing too long, just a string of compliments and smiley faces before sending her a personal message.

Hey Cat, it's Suzy.

I've been checking out your stuff, it's super awesome! I'd love to do something with you.  
Hope this message wasn't too weird, but I remember that amazing Jessica dress you made and I think we could do something really cool together!

Suzy added her number and hit send before going back to her own work. Her schedule was nowhere near as busy as Dan or Arin's. She still had a ton to do, but without the added stress of Starbomb and Ninja Sex Party, it left her with a little more free time.

When Catherine received the message, she almost couldn't believe it. It took her a moment to realize that she'd met Suzy what seemed like ages ago. But now she knew just how big her Youtube channel was, it was even more of a shock that she was offering to do a collab with her.  
She quickly sent a reply via text.

Hey, Suzy, it's Catherine.  
That sounds great! I'd love to do a video with you!  
Just let me know your schedule, I'm free pretty much every evening and weekend.  
(The perks of a school job)

Suzy smiled when she got the reply and looked over her calendar, looking for when she was next free. Luckily she had nothing planned for this weekend, and what with Arin being almost as busy as Dan, she didn't have anyone to spend it with. She quickly replied back with the information and started coming up with ideas of what they could do together. She decided not to tell Dan what was going on, and wondered if Catherine would. Then another idea struck Suzy as she planned, Catherine's workspace in her videos was cramped even for one person, so it would only make sense to move the collab to somewhere with a bit more room... She looked up at their long table and grinned, jumping up to got and find Arin. Luckily they'd finished recording and she could just burst into the recording room.  
"Hey babe" She giggled, dropping down on the couch with him.  
"hey, yourself..." He grinned back, wrapping an arm around her. "What's got you looking so chipper?"  
"I want to use part of the grump space for a collab..." Suzy asked with puppy dog eyes. Arin eyed her suspiciously.   
"Doing what and with who?..." he mumbled. Suzy eyed Dan from the other side of the couch, her husband catching her expression.  
"Please babe?" she pouted "It isn't using this room... just the big table out there" Arin smirked, tilting his head a little.   
"You're doing a collab with our bestie?" He asked, his eyes nodding to Dan for a second.  
"Yeah!" Suzy grinned, bouncing a little in her seat.  
"Well sure, I mean, it's not in the way or anything..." Arin stretched, grinning at her.  
"Thanks, babe" Suzy quickly kissed her husband's cheek before rushing out again.  
"Was that some weird married code I wasn't supposed to get?" Dan asked, looking up at his friend.  
"Nah dude, I have no idea what she's on about... but we don't use that table for shit, it isn't in the way" Arin yawned, shaking his head "Come on, we have shit to do..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See, no singing in this one


	8. Fancy seeing you here

That weekend rolled around quicker than Catherine had realized and before she knew it, she had received a text from Suzy telling her that she was outside her apartment waiting for her. Catherine gathered up her boxes of supplies and headed downstairs, meeting Suzy halfway.  
"Oh my gosh! You madwoman!" She gasped, quickly grabbing one of the large boxes. "Why didn't you tell me you needed help!?"  
"I've got it" Catherine chuckled, loading the boxes into the car and climbing into the passenger side. She'd dressed up a little more for her collab with Suzy. Normally she went for a more soft grunge look, but today she'd worn a little more eyeliner and some of her more moth-eaten clothing.  
"You look good today" Suzy grinned, getting in the driver's side and heading off.  
"Thanks..." Catherine blushed, looking out the window. "Hey, thanks for letting me use your space for the collab"   
"Don't mention it!" Suzy grinned "I don't think we were going to both fit in your bedroom from the looks of things"  
"So how has everything been since I last saw you?" Catherine hummed, turning to the other woman. "I mean, I'm guessing Arin must be just as swamped as Dan..."   
"Yeah... it's been tough" Suzy sighed "But that's one of the perks of working with your husband... you always get to see each other!"   
"That must be nice..." Catherine sighed, not really trying to sound sad, but it had come out that way.  
"How are you doing with the way things are?..." Suzy frowned, looking over at her.  
"It's fine... I mean, it's more than I thought I could have when Dan first disappeared..." Catherine sighed, forcing a smile. "I just didn't realize that I really wasn't going to see him at all..."  
"Well... You know this isn't going to be how it is forever... They're nearly done with the Starbomb stuff, NSP I know is almost finished... As for grump stuff, it's only because of the other stuff that they've fallen behind... I keep saying that if they just play a super shitty game, they could quite easily get a few quality episodes done in an evening..."  
"Are they working towards anything big then? Apart from the albums..." Catherine hummed, turning in her seat a little more so Suzy didn't have to keep looking over at her.  
"Well, Arin always likes to have a few episodes spare, a few one-offs with people to make sure if he wants to take some time off, or something like this happens again, they don't have to pull their hair out trying to keep on top of it" Suzy explained.  
"It makes sense, I guess..." Catherine smiled "I must say, you're all doing really well making sure it doesn't show in the videos... as an outsider, you all seem pretty laid back still"  
"Well, you have to be... I'm sure you're starting to realize just how hard Youtube can be sometimes... Dan told me what you do as your main job. I must say, I'd take all-nighters over looking after a ton of babies any day" Suzy giggled, glancing at her friend. "But with all that, on top of your videos... don't think I haven't noticed the increase of content, missy..." Catherine smiled, shaking her head a little.  
"Please, it's nothing compared to how much work you guys do..." She mumbled.  
"Yeah, but there's like six of us working on things... you're just your own one man band over there" Suzy chuckled, bringing a laugh out of Catherine as well.  
"I never asked where we were going to be filming" Catherine mumbled, realizing she didn't recognize her surroundings.  
"Ah you'll see" Suzy grinned, pulling into the parking lot outside an office building. "Come on, I'm helping you get the stuff upstairs.

Inside, Arin and Dan were just finishing their break before going back to recording when the door opened.  
"Hey guys" Suzy called behind the large boxes. Her husband rushed to grab them, carrying them over to the large table. Dan put his phone away and got up to help, stopping in his tracks when he saw Catherine at the door.   
"Hey," Catherine grinned at Arin, giving him a brief hug before she spotted Dan. "Hi..." she swallowed.  
"Hi..." Dan muttered back.  
"Fuck... Suzy" Catherine blinked, turning to her friend who had the widest grin on her face.  
"Yeah?" Suzy smiled innocently, placing down the rest of the boxes.  
"You set this up..." Catherine muttered, grinning back at her.  
"Maybe~" Suzy giggled, walking over to them. "I'm sorry... I just thought it would be a nice idea... just to let you guys see each other in person at least... and we do have a lot more space to record here..." Arin just grinned, heading back into the recording room, leaving Dan with them.  
"So uh..." Dan swallowed, looking between the two of them.  
"Yeah..." Catherine smiled  
"I'll be in there" he awkwardly gestured towards the recording room.  
"Yeah," Catherine hummed, rocking on the balls of her feet a little as Dan rushed off.  
"Wow... I've never seen him so nervous" Suzy chuckled, shaking her head. "Come on, let's get this recording started"  
"Why did you set this up today?" Catherine asked, starting to unpack her camera equipment.  
"Like I said, I wanted you to actually see each other... I've seen Dan glued to his phone every spare moment he has... he was really missing you..." Suzy grinned, opening up the other box to look through some material that had been picked out.  
"So which one of the projects did you want to do today?" Catherine smiled, setting up her tripod and attaching her camera. The lighting in here seemed pretty decent, but she had a small light if they needed it later.  
"Well, we've both got the day off, so why don't we do as many as we can fit in?" Suzy grinned, turning to her.  
"Well, the distressed tops will only take like half an hour... Then I have a nice elastic harness DIY that I think you'll love" Catherine explained, pulling out her sewing supplies.  
"Did you bring your makeup?" Suzy hummed, leaning over her to look into the boxes.  
"Yeah..." Catherine grinned, turning to her a little. "But why would I need my makeup?" she sighed dramatically.  
"I think we need to get your makeup done before we do anything else!" Suzy giggled, grabbing Catherine's makeup bag to route through it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still no singing! See! 
> 
> I kind if miss the singing...  
> Warning, there's going to be some more singing soon...


	9. Collabs

After everything was set up at the table and Catherine's makeup had been laid out for Suzy to do the first video, they started to record. The decided that the makeup video was going to be on Suzy's channel and the DIY's were going to be on Catherine's.  
"Hey guys, it's Mortimer and today, I'm here with SongCat" Suzy introduced the two of them, Catherine giving a little wave as Suzy continued. "And we're doing a few videos today, but as you can see, she isn't made up!"  
"I'm not pretty enough for your channel" Catherine smirked, causing Suzy to gasp.  
"It has nothing to do with how pretty you are!" She grinned, shoving her playfully.  
"Oww, Suzy, oww..." Catherine whined, rubbing her arm.  
"Anyway, I'm going to be doing her makeup and then she's going to teach me how to make some totally awesome things over on her channel!" Suzy continued.

Dan was totally distracted during the recording, knowing Catherine was outside.  
"Dude, what the hell!" Arin cried, looking up at his friend as he died for the hundredth time because of Dan's lack of concentration.  
"Shit, sorry" he groaned, throwing his head back.  
"Do you need another break?" Arin snapped, flapping at the screen. "Do you need to go jack it before we can fucking play?!"  
"Arin, calm down" Dan chuckled, looking up at him.  
"No, I mean it. Did I dress wrong today? Are my arms distracting you?" He poked, trying to, at least, make up for the shitty gameplay with humor.  
"Well now that you mention it..." Dan growled, quickly correcting himself with a giggle "I mean no, god no..."  
"Get your head back in the game man!" Arin sighed, shoving his friend hard, but as he pushed him, dan slammed his hand down on the couch, causing a loud thud.  
"Arin! Stop man! Ow!" He cried out, hitting the couch harder. "Arin I'm sorry! I'll do better!"

"What the fuck are they doing in there?" Catherine muttered as Suzy was doing her eyeliner.  
"Don't question it" Suzy chuckled, looking back at the camera "There, now you have a super cute cat eye!" Catherine waited for the eyeliner to dry for a moment before opening her eyes and looking at the small screen on the camera.  
"Oh fuck, I'm sexy!" She chuckled, looking back at Suzy. "Are we twinning today?"  
"Like I need another sister..." Suzy muttered under her breath before giggling loudly.  
"Fine then!" Catherine cried, turning away sharply as Suzy went to apply something to her eyes.  
"Sit still!" Suzy gasped "God, it was easier to do Arin's makeup! Less whiny too!"  
The two of them argued back and forth for a while as Suzy did her makeup, the two of them talking about projects they'd like to do in the future, other things they could do together.  
"Your singing is really amazing... I'm glad you're finally on YouTube..." Suzy hummed, finishing off everything and sitting back. "Okay, so I think we're done... are you ready?" Catherine nodded, rolling her shoulders now that she could move a little more. Suzy grabbed the mirror beside her and showed Catherine her reflection, causing her to gasp.  
"Oh my god..." she swallowed, taking the mirror to look closer.  
"Do you like it?" Suzy grinned, tilting her head a little.  
"Yeah... yeah, I love it, thank you" She grinned, placing the mirror down to give her friend a hug.  
"Well that's it, I hope you guys enjoyed watching... Cat seems to like what I've done" She hummed, fluffing Catherine's hair a little to style it. "And make sure to check out the other videos we're doing over on her channel SongCat, the links will be in the description. Please remember to subscribe and I'll see you next time! Bye~!"   
"That was awesome!" Catherine giggled as she got up to turn the camera off so they could set up for the next video.

Arin finally finished the game they'd been playing and shut off the recording.  
"Dude, what's next on the list?" he asked, taking the game out of the machine.  
"Can we take five?" Dan groaned, his head leaning back on the sofa as he rubbed his eyes.  
"So you can go ogle your lady friend? No way" Arin smirked, heading towards the door.  
"Well, where the fuck are you going?" Dan frowned up at him.  
"I'm going to ogle my wife" he smirked, rushing out of the room. Dan jumped up after him, chasing him into the main room where he skidded to another halt as his eyes met Catherine's.  
"Woah," he blinked, looking up at her. Cathine blushed, playing with the ends of her hair.  
"What do you think?" Suzy grinned, helping pack away the makeup.  
"You've got something on your face" Arin muttered, grabbing a soda from the fridge.  
"Shut up, I mean Dan!" Suzy giggled, presenting her friend to him.  
"You look amazing..." Dan muttered, walking over to her. He looked her over and smiled, brushing her hair out of her face. "Suzy did a nice job..."  
"Get a fucking room!" Arin groaned, quickly correcting himself "Wait, no. Put it back in your pants, we've got work to do!" he snapped, grabbing Dan's arm.  
"Dude, come on" Dan frowned, not letting Arin drag him along.  
"We've only got one more game to do, it's not a long one..." Arin pleaded "Once this is done, it'll free up our schedule..." Dan looked back at Catherine and sighed. Arin dropped Dan's arm and moved back to the recording room, knowing his friend would join him in a moment.  
"I'm sorry..." he mumbled, taking her hand and squeezing it.  
"It's okay, me and Suzy have some stuff to record..." Catherine grinned, squeezing back. "Go be funny"  
"Daniel!" Arin screamed from the recording room, causing them to both turn.  
"I'll see you later then" Dan grinned, kissing Catherine's hand before rushing back to the room.  
Suzy and Catherine looked to each other and grinned.  
"Thank you for doing this..." she mumbled

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fuck man... I miss all the singing...  
> Kind of want to draw what Catherine looks like at the moment too...  
> oh well...


	10. Does this count as a date?

Suzy and Catherine worked on their videos, and Dan and Arin continued with theirs. There was less moping all round and everyone got some genuinely good content filmed. Suzy and Catherine had made distressed t-shirts and some boot covers out of long socks to match them, along with some other little DIY tips to fit into the video. They left modeling the clothes until the end and had almost finished when Arin and Dan came out of the recording room, high-fiving over actually getting some work done and a big thing ticked off their to-do list. Dan turned to see Catherine leaning against the wall in her moth-eaten shirt and ripped tights, with her matching boot covers and dark makeup look and couldn't help but stare with his mouth hanging open.  
It took the girls a moment to notice him staring, but they both giggled when they saw his expression, Arin shoving him out of his thoughts.  
"Dude, I think that girl over there likes you..." Arin stage whispered, causing Dan to grin.  
"No... really?" Dan hissed back loud enough for Suzy and Catherine to hear.  
"Yeah, go talk to her!" Arin wasn't subtle about pointing either.  
"Well, I think her friend is kinda into you..." Dan giggled back at him. Arin took a moment to look over at Suzy before shrugging.  
"Nah... not really my type" he sighed, turning to walk off.  
"That's fine, I'll take her" Catherine grinned, linking arms with Suzy. Dan and Arin both turned.  
"Okay!" They both grinned.  
"I mean, on the table would be great, but people eat here... let's move this to the couch. I'll get some wine, Dan'll get his camera" Arin rambled. Catherine smirked, shaking her head as she moved over to Dan.  
"So what do you think?" She asked, tugging at the hem of her shirt.  
"It looks awesome... it looks really old... I mean, I know that's the idea, but you know when you can tell it's been done on purpose..." He smiled, picking at a few loose threads on one of the tears.   
"So are you done now?" Catherine asked, blinking up at him.  
"Uh... Game Grumps stuff, yeah..." Dan nodded, looking over at Arin who was talking to his wife about whatever. "There's still a shit ton of stuff to do for Starbomb... but my part is nearly done with that, the rest is up to Arin as far as animations go and stuff..."  
"So... would you be available for dinner?" Catherine mumbled, biting her lip a little. Dan tried to suppress a groan, grinning at her.  
"Lemme just check with Arin before I get an angry call halfway through..." he muttered back.

It turned out that Dan's schedule was clear for the rest of the evening. Catherine thanked Suzy for the amazing videos and told her that she would send her the makeup video for editing and they'd plan an upload date before her and Dan set off out. She loaded her things into Dan's car and climbed into the passenger seat.  
"This is weird..." She mumbled as he got in the driver's side and fastened his seatbelt.  
"Is it?" he asked, glancing at her as he started his car.  
"Yeah... this is like... our first date" Catherine blinked, looking up at him.  
"It kinda is... yeah" Dan smiled, looking back at his steering wheel before looking back up. "Is this wrong? I mean, is this the wrong way to do this?... because this can just be dinner, we can plan something for our official first date..."   
"No" Catherine grinned "This is good... But I have something in mind... so just, go with it?"   
"Sure" Dan blinked "Just gimme directions and lead the way"

Catherine got the address up on her phone and read out the directions to Dan as they drove, managing to navigate traffic at this time of night. They finally pulled up outside a diner.  
"I was going to take you somewhere nicer" Dan started, but Catherine held up her hand.  
"We're getting this to go" She grinned, jumping out of the car.  
"Where are we going afterwards?" Dan chuckled, following her inside.  
"Well, it's no fun if I tell you" She hummed, turning to him. "Just... there's a little driving involved... if that's okay?... I'll give you some gas money"   
"Babe, as long as it isn't like, accross state, it's okay" Dan grinned, glancing at the menu by the counter.  
"Hi, can I help you?" one of the staff approached us. "Table for two?"  
"No thanks, could we get ours to go?" Catherine grinned, looking up at her. Dan realized that for once, she wasn't wearing her huge heels she normally wore on stage, she was actually quite short in just her boots. She rested her arms on the counter and hummed as the waitress went through some of the specials. Finally, Catherine ordered, leaving it to Dan as she looked out the window.  
"Hey, is there like, a convenience store near here?" She asked the waitress.  
"Yeah, just accross the street and a few doors down" She smiled.  
"Thanks... you okay here for a second?" She asked, looking up at Dan.  
"Where are you going?" He blinked.  
"Just going to grab a few things. Here" She pulled out her purse and gave him the money for her food before leaving the diner. She quickly made her way down to the shop, buying them both a beer before heading back to the diner. Dan was already stood outside with the food when she returned.  
"So where to?" Dan smiled, opening the passenger door for her.  
"Just drive, I'll tell you where to go" She grinned, placing the beers on the back seat with the food as they set off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dude, where is my singing???  
> There will be a fucking musical soon!
> 
> Nah, I hope you like it so far.


	11. First Date

It wasn't a long drive, it took maybe 15 minutes from the diner, but once they reached the end of the paved road, Catherine told Dan to park the car and follow her. They both climbed out and Catherine grabbed the food, leading Dan up a dirt path until there was a clear spot. Dan sighed quietly as they looked out over an amazing view of California as the sun was going down. He looked over to see Catherine sitting down on the edge, patting the ground beside her.  
"Come on" She smiled, holding out her hand.  
"I'm going to have to do something seriously manly soon, this is just too romantic" He chuckled, sitting down beside her.  
"What's the matter?" Catherine grinned, looking up at him.  
"I don't know baby, this is all too sensitive for me" He sighed dramatically.   
"Aw babe, are you gonna cry?" Catherine chuckled, biting her lip a little. Dan smirked, narrowing his eyes a little.  
"Really?... you're gonna make a reference now?" He sighed, trying not to laugh.  
"Oh come on" Catherine giggled. "When am I going to get to make a reference like that and not totally ruin the mood?"  
"Thank god you didn't sing it..." Dan chuckled, shaking his head.  
"And what if I did?" Catherine snapped, sitting up with a wide grin on her face. "What if I just start singing Why I Cry right now? You're the only one who'll hear me!"  
"Fucking do it!" Dan grinned back, throwing his arms out "Who's stopping you?!"  
"We'll make love inside a rainbow through the night" Catherine started, getting to her feet. "Then after sex I'll cry, cry... and also before sex I'll cry, cry" Catherine's voice turned from actual singing into a screech, causing Dan to roll back laughing.  
"Sit down! Please stop!" He giggled, holding his sides.  
"And during sex, I'll cry!" Catherine grinned, taking his hands "Thinking about sex makes me cry!...Even when I use a sextant I cry" Dan finally dragged her down, pulling her close.  
"Oh god, please never do that again" he chuckled, wrapping his arms around her properly.  
"You didn't like my singing?" Catherine pouted before she too started laughing.  
"No baby, it was too good for me" He smirked, shaking his head "Too sexy... please never sing that song again..."  
"Oh but babe" Catherine pouted, rolling off of him. "I'm a huge fan of yours now... I know all your songs"  
"A huge fan, huh?" Danny grinned, leaning in a little. "So I've got myself a groupie?" Catherine grinned back, playing with her hair. "I think, Mr. Sexbang... you were my groupie long before I was ever yours..."  
"True" Dan grinned, sitting back on his hands as he took in the view. "Fuck it's beautiful up here..."  
"It is..." Catherine sighed back, grabbing their food and sharing it between them.  
"This is perfect for a first date..." Dan mumbled, trying not to think too much right now as he opened his beer. "Thank you..."  
"Why are you thanking me?" Catherine blinked.  
"Because this was your idea... and it was an amazing one" Dan hummed. His eyes watched the horizon as the sun dipped lower and lower before it dipped. The sky had turned amazing shades of orange and pink, all of them highlighting Catherine's hair perfectly. Catherine blinked up after feeling eyes on her.  
"What?" she giggled, taking a swig of her own beer.  
"I'm sorry I seemed like I was avoiding this..." he swallowed, looking down at himself for a moment. "I wanted this to work... but I think a part of me was scared that if I left my work for a second to spend time with you, it would mess things up... and I'm so glad I was wrong" Catherine sighed, setting her food down for a second.  
"You know... when I first met you in the bar... I thought you were like all the other guys... just ogling me on stage... and I was kinda okay with that, you were pretty hot yourself..." She explained, "But when you didn't try and get my number that night... and kept showing up, I got a little scared, but it was a nice scared... But you kept so much to yourself, and I figured that you just wanted us to stay the way things were, just a nice thing... and I realized that I was okay with that, because as long as I got to see you then it made it kind of worth it?" She smiled up at him, taking his hand. "And when I got that video... after you disappearing for so long... I mean, it was funny as hell because I know you're a professional... but it really made me feel special..." Dan forced a smile, thinking to himself for a moment before an awful thought struck him.  
"Oh shit..." he swallowed, sitting up quickly.  
"What's the matter?" Catherine blinked, letting go of his hand.  
"Uh... uh, how popular is that Daniel video?" he muttered, turning to her.  
"Um... not that popular?... why?" She frowned, tilting her head a little.  
"I just uh..." Dan swallowed again, running a hand through his hair. "Fuck, it's not that big of a deal... just forget it, nevermind..." he shook his head quickly "No, it's fine, it'll be okay" He seemed to settle himself back down, but Catherine placed a hand on his arm.  
"What's the matter?" she frowned, leaning in again.  
"I just uh... I don't know, I kind of panicked realizing that one minute you're singing a song about missing a guy named Daniel, then the next minute, you're recording stuff with Suzy in our space..." Dan really didn't know where he wanted this to go yet, he didn't want people making accusations... Catherine saw his expression and thought for a moment before she shrugged.  
"Do you want me to take down the video? Becuase that'll only confirm that..." She sighed "If I just leave it, they might leave it to a coincidence..."  
"Really?" Dan frowned, looking into her eyes.  
"Tell you what..." Catherine smiled, taking his hand. "I'll do a few more Elton John covers... make it seem like I just really like his songs"  
"Do you like his songs?" Dan asked, pulling a face.  
"Not really, but he had a nice song about your name" She grinned, squeezing his hand. Dan sighed, looking up at the younger girl for a moment before leaning in to press a kiss to her forehead. He did like the girl, and this evening had felt amazing, even if it was just sitting and talking... There was still that small worry in the back of his head, but for now, he just smiled down at her.  
"You missed..." She muttered, taking hold of his shirt and pulling him forward. They shared a kiss for a moment before pulling away.  
"This was nice..." Catherine hummed, playing with his shirt. "We need to do this again... when you're less busy"  
"Yeah," Dan swallowed, feeling his heart pounding in his ears in an unpleasant way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh shit is Dan already having doubts??
> 
> The little bit of a song was NSP's Why I Cry


	12. Night Off

"So, got a free night tonight" Arin grinned, pulling on his hoodie. "Gonna go see Catherine?" Dan flinched a little at that question, quickly gathering up his things without answering. "Dan?" Arin pressed, looking up at his friend.  
"What, man?" Dan huffed, not bothering to hide his frustration.  
"What's up your ass? I was just asking if you were seeing Cat tonight?" Arin frowned. Dan groaned, running a hand through his hair.  
"No..." he sighed, looking up at Arin.   
"Why not?" Arin frowned, pushing his hands into his pockets.   
"Because... fuck, man... I don't want to?" He huffed, looking for head headphones.  
"What the hell? After all that shit about not being able to see her a few weeks ago?" Arin asked.  
"I mean... yeah I want to see her, but it was weird last time" Dan mumbled.  
"What do you mean it was weird?" Arin asked, sitting down beside him. "What happened?" Dan huffed loudly, making it clear he really didn't want to have this conversation, but he knew Arin wasn't going to let him drop it.  
"We got takeout... drove up to this awesome mountain view and watched the sunset... we kissed" Dan sighed, shaking his head.  
"That sounds super nice man... awesome first date" Arin grinned, shoving him a little.  
"Yeah, it was amazing" Dan hummed, looking up at his friend. "But it was weird... we were just so close, it was like really personal..."  
"You're scared of being in a relationship... it's cool, loads of guys have that..." Arin grinned  
"Really?" Dan frowned, wondering if he was just trying to make him feel better.  
"Yeah... Dude, loads of people get scared of settling down with one person, especially if you're so used to casual things..." Arin grinned, patting his shoulder.   
"So what do I do?" Dan sighed, shaking his head.  
"Just stick with it!" Arin sighed back "Dude, it's scary... but it's a nice scary, and it's so worth it!" Dan thought to himself for a while before groaning.  
"What if I never get over this?" he muttered.  
"Then you don't want to be with her that badly..." Arin shrugged, pulling out his phone "If you like her, you'll make it work..." Arin glanced up for a second. "Do you like her?"  
Dan thought for a moment before answering.  
"I guess so..."

Catherine was already on her way to the bar when she got a text from Dan.

Want to do something tonight? 

Catherine grinned, quickly texting back.

I'm singing tonight, come watch me. We'll take it from there. x

Dan agreed and made his way to the bar, quickly finding her near the doors to backstage. It wasn't as busy during the week, and with some time between the next big holiday, it only left a few people performing.  
"Hey," He grinned, leaning in to give her a peck on the cheek.  
"Hey," Catherine smiled back, not returning the gesture. She seemed to be dressed for the part of whatever song she was singing tonight. It had to be a Taylor swift song, or something close, her hair was gently curled and she had on a summer dress and cowgirl boots.  
"So uh... what are you doing tonight?" Dan smiled, pushing his hands into his pockets.  
"You'll see... I'm up next..." She hummed, not really meeting his eyes for once, which was kind of strange.  
"Okay," Dan smiled, running his fingers through her hair. "You look good tonight..."  
"Really?" Catherine blinked, turning a little more to him now.  
"Yeah..." He hummed, leaning in a little closer. He was about to say something more, but the set ended and Catherine slipped away without a word, leaving Dan by the door.  
There weren't any announcements tonight, just a quick changeover as the band cleared off and Catherine took the stage, quickly adjusting the mic stand before nodding to the DJ to play her backing music.  
"Once upon a time, I believe it was a Tuesday when I caught your eye...And we caught onto something" She sighed, swaying a little with the music. It was definitely a Taylor song... "I hold onto the night, You looked me in the eye and told me you loved me" Then her expression turned sour "Were you just kidding? 'Cause it seems to me, this thing is breaking down. We almost never speak. I don't feel welcome anymore... Baby, what happened please tell me?" She found Danny's eyes in seconds, her features softening a little "'Cause one second it was perfect, now you're halfway out the door" She took the mic off the stand as the chorus came in, bouncing a little to the music as she moved accross the stage.  
"And I stare at the phone, he still hasn't called and then you feel so low you can't feel anything at all. And you flashback to when he said forever and always... Oh, and it rains in your bedroom, everything is wrong, it rains when you're here and it rains when you're gone. 'Cause I was there when you said forever and always"  
For a sweet, Taylor song, the lyrics really cut Dan deep. He sighed as he pushed his hands into his pockets. The rest of the audience loved her performance, and it really was a good song on her, but that was partial because she had the emotion to back up the lyrics...  
"Was I out of line? Did I say something way too honest? Made you run and hide like a scared little boy..." She hissed, almost spinning entirely to look at him. "I looked into your eyes thought I knew you for a minute, now I'm not so sure" Dan hung his head as the song played on, not wanting to pay too much attention to the rest as he waited for her to come back. It finally ended and the room applauded as she exited, soon appearing at his side. She looked him over for a moment before taking his hand.  
"Let's go for a walk..." She muttered, Dan just following behind. They didn't go far, just ending up in the parking lot. Catherine huffed loudly when Dan remained silent so took it upon herself to speak first. "I'm sorry..." Dan's head snapped up then to look at her.  
"Why are you sorry?" he blinked.  
"Because this isn't what you wanted..." She frowned "And I shouldn't have forced it so much when you clearly didn't want it..." Dan groaned softly and shook his head.  
"I don't know what I want" He swallowed, running a hand through his hair. Catherine stared up at him before doing the same.  
"But this makes you uncomfortable... the dating... hanging around with your friends" She mumbled before blurting out "Do you just want to fuck?"  
"No!" Dan gasped "I mean... no, that's not all I want to do..." Catherine laughed bitterly.  
"But you do want to... and that's the first definite thing I've heard you say you want..."  
"I didn't mean it like that" Dan frowned "Listen... Catherine, I do really like you... but"  
"But what?" Catherine snapped, cutting him off. "You're just a scared little boy... And I'm not saying that because you don't want a relationship, I'm saying it because you can't give me a straight fucking answer..."  
"I don't know what I want..." he mumbled, knowing he couldn't make this any better.  
"I know you don't! You clearly fucking don't... because one minute, we're having this super fucking romantic date, the next minute you're speeding me back to your place as fast as you can, without so much as a goodbye!" Dan sighed, shaking his head, he had left that out when he'd told Arin, but only because he knew the lecture he'd get if he'd told him...  
"I know I need to make a choice... but it's hard" he mumbled, looking into her eyes. Catherine went to shout something before muttering bitterly  
"Well I'll just make it for us" She huffed, storming off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh shit!
> 
> The song was Forever and Always by Taylor Swift


	13. Teenage Dream

Dan was in a stunned silence for a second before he realised what had happened.  
"Wait!" He shouted as she disappeared back into the club. He ran after her, searching the room for her, finally catching her long red hair on the other side of the dancefloor now. He barged his way through, finally managing to grab her arm, causing her to turn sharply.  
"What?" She snapped  
"I came here tonight to tell you something!" Dan frowned, snapping back a little.  
"Oh yeah?" Catherine growled, "Well go on then!"  
"I want to fucking be with you!" He snapped back "I'm so fucking scared because I haven't felt this way in a very long time! I'm so fucking scared of letting my guard down and actually letting someone that close!" Catherine just stared for a moment before pulling him into a kiss. She could feel other people staring at them but really couldn't care by this point. She pulled back for a second to look at his face.  
"You're a fucking idiot..." She muttered, dragging him back into another kiss.  
"I know" He chuckled, pulling her closer. 

Arin sat back as Dan finished explaining the previous night.  
"So what happened after that?" He blinked, looking up at his friend.  
"Well... we went back to hers..." Dan mumbled, looking in the fridge for something to drink.  
"Seriously?" Arin frowned a little, slouching back on the couch.  
"What?" Dan blinked, straightening up.  
"After that whole fight about being a serious relationship, you go off and sleep together?" He muttered.  
"No, dude" Dan smiled, sitting down on the sofa. "We didn't have sex... but it was nice, you know?" He felt his cheeks redden a little, thinking about her. "It was like being in high school again... only, you know... less awkward and inexperienced..." Arin couldn't help but smirk at that.  
"So, what?... you went back to hers and made out?" he mumbled, taking a sip of his Pepsi.  
"Yeah," Dan grinned, pulling out his phone.  
"That's sickeningly cute, I'm sorry, you can't sit with me" Arin mumbled, shoving him towards the end of the sofa.  
"Dude!" Dan chuckled, looking up at him.  
"So when are you seeing her again?" The younger man asked, pushing his hair out of his face.  
"Tonight..." Dan huffed with a grin.  
"Really?" Arin blinked "Don't you have stuff to work on?"   
"Yeah, but I can do them tomorrow" Dan waved him off, sending off another text. "I'm not going to fuck this up, man... I want to try for this"  
"This, this must be serious..." Arin mumbled, mainly to himself. "What made you change your mind?" Dan sighed, shaking his head a little.  
"Just... after everything you said, and after seeing the way she looked at me when she sang that song..." He explained, "I realised that it wouldn't hurt so bad if I didn't give a shit about her... I've had girls talk shit about me most of my adult life, it just rolls right off me because they didn't mean a thing... but she cut me deep with a fucking Taylor Swift song..."  
"Ah, dude, some of her lyrics are brutal" Arin smirked, nudging his friend.  
"Yeah, well..." Dan grinned, looking back at his phone "I'm planning on taking her out properly tonight, showing her that this isn't just some weird thing..."  
"Well, good for you man..." Arin smiled, patting his back. "I'm glad you've started overcoming this fear..."  
"Me too" Dan hummed, sending off another text before sitting up again. "Right, let's get some stuff finished so I'm not swamped tomorrow!"

Arin could see how hard Dan was trying, and was pleased that he'd found a nice balance of work and play. He just hoped that he didn't get cold feet again before this relationship had really begun. As someone who had been in a relationship for over ten years, it was really hard to remember what it was like to not have someone, or try and incorporate that person into his life.   
without really thinking about it.  
They finished another couple of hours of recording before Dan jumped up and grabbed his jacket.  
"I'm sorry to split like this, but I've gotta get ready" he grinned, ruffling his hair a little.  
"Dude, it's fine. Go out and have a great time" Arin grinned, stretching his arms above his head and feeling his joints pop.  
"I will..." Dan hummed, checking he had everything before he ran out the door, calling a goodbye to the others as he went.

It was strange travelling home at a decent time in the afternoon for once, if he hadn't had anything going on, then he probably would be in the recording room for the rest of the night, just working on a load of backup episodes. It was more than they were usually scheduled for, but with this all done in advance, it gave him some time to actually work on his music.  
He parked up outside his house and sent a text to Catherine, letting her know he was getting ready. He wanted to look good, not just presentable, so he decided on washing his hair, trying to get some of the worst tangles out. He had laid out a not so ripped pair of jeans on his bed along with a shirt for once, and his leather jacket. He felt almost silly getting this excited and planning ahead but then wondered if this is what people do when they're seriously dating. He quickly sent a text to Arin, quickly getting the reply.

I wish you'd put this much effort into OUR dates Daniel! 

Maybe I'd put out a bit more!

Dan giggled, putting his phone on to charge as he got ready, constantly looking himself over in the mirror. He tried hard to ignore the fact that he was shaking. He just held on to the thought that he was nervous because he liked her so much... he wanted to impress her so badly.  
He kind of lost track of time making sure he looked alright, and that he had everything on him when he got a message on his phone. He went to check his messages and realized it was a short video, the thumbnail being Catherine grinning on what looked like a main street. He clicked the clip and grinned when her voice came in through his speakers.  
"I think you're pretty without any makeup on" She giggled before forcing herself to sing more seriously "I think you're funny when you tell a joke that's wrong and you kinda get me so just let your walls come down, down" She let her voice break as she hit a higher note before grinning at the camera as it cut off. He glanced at the time and swore realizing that she must have been waiting where he said they'd meet. He quickly grabbed his keys and wallet and ran out the door, hoping traffic wasn't bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah the song was Teenage Dream if you didn't bother to read the title XD By Katy Perry but not by Katie Perry because the words were different? I don't know...  
> I hope you're liking it so far.
> 
> Comments are love!


	14. Second Date

Finally, Dan pulled up to the restaurant, parking up and hopping out to see Catherine sat outside.  
"Hey," He grinned, walking over to her, noticing she was only in a t-shirt and trousers. "Aren't you cold?"   
"No?" She chuckled "Dude, it's like 70 degrees" She stood up and wrapped her arms around him. "I didn't realize we were dressing up tonight... you look very nice" She hummed.  
"Well you look good too, really" He mumbled "I just..." She cut him off with a kiss to his cheek.  
"Do I need to be dressed nicer for this place?" She hummed. Dan pulled back to look at her outfit and grinned.  
"Where did you get that t-shirt?" He gushed, pulling at it to look closer.  
"Oh," Catherine grinned, looking down at it herself. "Online... I saw it on Pinterest and had to have it..." She was shocked Dan even knew about the last unicorn, let alone liked it.  
"Holy shit, it's the book!" Dan gasped, looking at the tiny words that made up the colour of the top, the spaces between them making up the picture of the unicorn on the front.  
"You like it?" She mumbled, looking up at him.  
"It's like, my favourite book!" He grinned "Didn't you see my cover of the song?"  
"No?" Catherine frowned "Was it on your Youtube channel?"   
"Yeah," Dan grinned, wrapping an arm around her again. "No, it's okay, it's totally cool if you haven't... I keep forgetting you don't know me from the internet" He chuckled, pulling her close.  
"Well suddenly I'm not so worried about what I'm wearing..." She smirked up at him.  
"Seriously, that's one of the coolest shirts I've seen. I need one" He grinned.

After that, the night seemed to go so smoothly. The place wasn't too fancy, just a little classier than the diner they'd bought takeout from. It didn't have the same romantic tension that the picnic had, it felt just right to sit and talk about films and music like they should've done in the first place.  
"So it sounds like you're doing really well for yourself" Dan grinned, finishing off his burger.  
"Yeah, after I uploaded the videos I did with Suzy, my views kind of exploded a little..." She hummed, looking over the drinks menu again at the cocktails.  
"That's sweet... you two seem to work really well together, I should put you in touch with Holly, she's another DIY vlogger... big on cosplay" Dan smiled, pulling out his phone, which had been ignored most of the night.  
"That would be awesome!" Catherine gasped "Really, Dan... I appreciate you introducing me to all your friends... this is seriously helping out my channel..."  
"It's nothing, really" Dan bit his lip, smiling up at her. "You're super talented, you should show the world" Catherine sighed happily, finishing off her fries.  
"I wish I could do what you do, though..." She giggled "I'm terrible at writing music... all my stuff are covers..."  
"Covers are a really good start" Dan explained, "But don't feel you have to write your own stuff, some people just can't, and that's totally cool. There are people who can write amazing songs but can't sing at all" His tone a little more serious now. "If you get to a point where you really don't want to sing covers anymore, then I'll help you start reaching out to writers, take this a step further..."  
"That would be amazing" Catherine huffed, blinking up at him. "I also really love the gaming you do, though... I thought you could only do those kind of videos if you were super good at playing..."  
"Oh god no!" Dan grinned, barking out a laugh "Honestly, me and Arin can't play half the stuff we post, but that's what makes it funny... if we're super good at a game, and there are no problems, it's boring as fuck!" Catherine grinned at him, loving how passionate he was about his work. "Listen, if you wanted to come down and play with us, I'm sure Arin or Ross would be happy to... they're both a lot less busy at the moment, but as soon as some of my time is freed up, I'll play you at anything, anytime!" He smirked, almost adding in a challenge there.  
"Dan, this is all so sweet..." She smiled "But don't feel like you have to bring me into your circle so soon. I know you're trying super hard with all this... and I don't want you to feel cornered..." Dan paused for a moment, blinking.  
"I really hadn't thought about it..." He mumbled, "I just... the idea seemed great" he huffed, thinking for a moment.  
"I've met Arin and Suzy... Holly sounds really nice" She smiled "But it's okay to take things slower... it's why I haven't introduced you to any of my friends yet, I want you to be comfortable and ready..." Dan smiled softly at her, reaching out to take her hand.  
"I'm sorry for being such a chicken shit over this..." He chuckled.  
"It's fine" She sighed "Don't run before you've learned to walk... let these things come naturally" Dan nodded in agreement before shifting the subject.  
"So what games do you like to play?..."

When they had finished their meals and paid, Dan and Catherine made their way outside.  
"So where's your car?" Dan asked, looking around.  
"I took a taxi... I knew I was going to be drinking" She hummed, looking up at him.   
"Oh..." Dan blinked, pulling out his phone to check the time. "I'm okay to drive, I can give you a lift back to your place if you want? I remember where it is" Catherine smiled, shaking her head.  
"It's okay... you don't have to" She sighed, taking his hand. "But this was a lovely evening... a much nicer, second date..."  
"Yeah," Dan smirked, stroking his thumb accross her knuckles. They stood like that for a moment before Catherine spoke.  
"Although..." She mumbled, glancing up at him. "If you wanted to come back to my place... then I'm sure I could accept a lift" It took Dan a second to catch on before grinning at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooooh!
> 
> Here's the top she was wearing - http://www.litographs.com/products/unicorn-tee


	15. Did you just say daddy?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're gonna have sex...  
> sorry for that spoiler, but they're gonna have sex... if you're uncomfortable with that, then I'm sorry... I can't promise this will be the only time they have sex...

"This isn't going to mess up work for you, is it?" Dan frowned when the stopped at a red light.  
"No, it's a weekend" She hummed, turning a little in her seat so she could talk to him. "Perks of being a teacher..."   
"Yeah..." Dan chuckled softly, glancing at her.  
"You okay with this?" She asked, a strange quiet falling over the two of them.  
"What do you mean?" he blinked.  
"With this?... What we're gonna do?" She elaborated. Dan huffed quietly, smiling at her.  
"Of course?" He muttered, "Why wouldn't I be?" Catherine glanced down at her hands for a moment before sighing.  
"Dan... I'm not saying I don't want to because I really do want to..." She mumbled, "Believe me, that night you slept round..." She quickly stopped herself "But if this is just going to be what I'm... really hoping it's not, then maybe this isn't such a good idea..." Dan frowned, wishing they'd hit another red light so he could actually look at her.  
"It's not... It's not going to be that" he swallowed "I promise... I really do want this to work between us... but if you don't want to do this, then I can drive you home..." He quickly added, "Or you don't even need to go home, you can still come to mine, I will be happy with whatever you want to do... I honestly just want to spend time with you..."  
Catherine smiled, playing with one of the long plaits her hair had been braided into.  
"I just wanted to be sure... I'm sorry for making you worry" She hummed, looking back up at him.

They pulled up to Dan's house and hopped out, Catherine waiting at the door for him as he unlocked it. They stepped in, Dan quickly taking off his shoes and hurrying through the living room. Catherine was about to speak when Dan shushed her, approaching one of the doors down the hall. He pressed his ear to it and listened for a moment before grinning and gesturing for her to follow him. She tried to be as quiet as she could as they snuck into his bedroom.  
"What's going on?" She giggled quietly as he closed the door.  
"My roommate..." He chuckled "Just making sure he was asleep..." He quickly unbuttoned his shirt, leaving it on as he sat down on the bed, spreading his legs a little and gesturing her over to him again. Catherine grinned, toeing off her converse before walking over to straddle his lap, her arms wrapping around his neck.  
"Still sure about this?" She muttered against his skin, kissing her way up to his jaw.  
"Oh baby girl..." Dan sighed softly, running his large hands up her back. "Never been so sure..." Catherine grinned, occasionally biting at the soft skin, her hands coming up to tangle in his hair.  
The older man let out a quiet groan, arching up against her a little as she tugged.  
"Like that?" She chuckled, tugging a little more.  
"Hmm... yes" He barely whispered, pushing his hands under her shirt to pull it off. Catherine quickly leaned back to help undress quicker, throwing her top aside, letting him run his eyes over her chest, his hands coming to touch the satin fabric of her bra.  
"Your turn" She grinned, pushing at his shirt. Dan quickly shrugged it off, his hands coming straight back to her boobs so he could bury his face in her cleavage, kissing and biting at the soft skin. Catherine gasped, gripping his hair again as she let him explore, one hand reaching behind her to undo the clasp, quickly pulling the straps down and removing the item.   
"Fuck, baby girl..." he hummed in appreciation, his mouth immediately returning to kiss the newly exposed area.   
"Tell me what to do" She groaned, feeling his teeth over one of her nipples.  
"get on the bed" he growled, quickly pulling away and helping her off his lap. Catherine quickly did as she was told, laying back on his sheets, watching him as he undid his jeans, the bulge in his boxers almost forcing down his zip as he tried to drag the whole thing out. She decided she wasn't going to just sit and let him give her a show, he deserved one too. She moved her hands down to her own trousers, undoing the button and pushing them down her hips and off her legs, leaving on her underwear that had actually matched her bra that was now on the other side of the room. She was about to pull those down when he climbed back onto the bed, now only in his boxers.  
"Dan... please" She huffed, moving her arms to the headboard as his continued the job of undressing her, pulling her underwear down her legs before throwing it in the same direction as the rest of her clothes. Once she was fully exposed, he sat back to admire her, his hands running over her thighs and hips, occasionally scratching with his nails, leaving pink marks.  
"Like this baby?... like being teased?" He growled, grinning at her. Catherine couldn't manage words, just a quick nod as her thighs rubbed together in desperation. Dan chuckled softly, pushing her legs apart and exposing her further. He ran his hands up her thighs once more, his left hand coming to stroke her folds, pulling a gasp from her.  
"Ah please..." She whimpered, rocking her hips down, trying to gain more contact.  
"Oh... love it when you beg, baby" he hummed, leaning down to kiss her neck, his fingers still stroking her gently, occasionally teasing her opening. "Keep it up and daddy might treat you"  
Catherine blinked for a moment, looking up at him.  
"What?" She couldn't hide her smile, causing Dan to freeze.  
"Uh..." he mumbled, glancing down between them before meeting her eyes again.  
"Did you just call yourself daddy?" she hummed, feeling a giggle bubble up in her throat.  
"Yeah..." Dan mumbled, pulling his hand away.  
"No" Catherine blinked, reaching down to take his hand, returning it to where it was. "I kinda liked it... it was just a little unexpected..."  
"Really?" Dan mumbled, biting his lip a little.  
"Yeah..." Catherine hummed, using her fingers to manipulate his, entering her a little. "I liked it, daddy..." Dan gasped a little, pushing his fingers deeper to feel how wet she was for him, her walls already twitching around him as he pulled them back.  
"Fuck..." he sighed, grinning at her as he pushed in a little deeper.

Catherine didn't know why it didn't creep her out. Normally that kind of talk was an instant turn off for her, but something about the way Dan growled it, the fact that it was just the word, none of the babying behind it. It felt so comfortable to say it back, quickly slipping into the roleplay she could see that he wanted.  
"Daddy, please" She gasped, bringing her legs to wrap around him. Dan glanced up, grinning again as he added another finger, feeling the stretch around his digits as his other hand moved to push down his boxers.   
"It's okay, baby, I've got you" he sighed, his right hand reaching for the bedside drawer, quickly grabbing a condom and ripping it open with his teeth.  
"Wait" Catherine muttered, sitting up a little. Dan let his fingers leave her, letting her sit up properly to do what she wanted. She took the condom from him and pushed him down onto the bed, switching their positions as she rolled the condom onto him. It took a moment but once she was straddling his lap, hovering above him, she was able to lower herself down, her head rolling back as he entered her.  
All Dan could do was sit back and watch, biting back a moan as her tight head enveloped him. She was quickly seated in his lap and gave him almost no time to adjust before she started rocking her hips, making it very hard not to make a noise. As amazing as she felt, he was still worried about Barry in the next room, that was until she started to circle her hips, pulling a loud gasp from him, her walls tightening around him for a moment.  
"Does daddy like that?" She muttered, placing her hands on his chest so she could ride him a little harder.  
"Fucking yes" he moaned, gripping her hips, pulling her closer, rocking her harder, anything to keep himself buried as deep as possible. "So good, baby"  
"Touch me" Catherine swallowed, leaning back so her hands were braced on his thighs instead, giving him room to bring a hand down to her clit, thumbing it almost too roughly, but with everything that was already happening, it just brought her quickly to the edge. Dan had to bite his lip as he felt her walls already tightening around him, wanting this to last longer, but between pulling all-nighters, and not doing anything other than some light kissing with Catherine, he could already feel himself getting close too.   
Dan figured Catherine had worked that out when she suddenly kicked it up a notch, almost bouncing on his lap as she let her head fall back, leaving herself entirely exposed to him, her large breasts bouncing with their movements and her long, pale neck that made his mouth water. He suddenly sat up, causing her to fall back against the bed as he slipped out of her. It only took a moments maneuvering before Dan had pulled her legs around his waist and was pushing back inside her, now able to fuck her properly. Catherine by this point was unable to contain her moans, quickly bringing her hand to her mouth to try and muffle herself as Dan continued to pound her. She quickly reached her peak, crying out against her own hand as she came, her legs tightening around Dan's body. Then a few thrusts later he joined her, giving a few last thrusts before he came just as hard, his body shuddering against her for a few minutes.

The two of them laid there just panting in the dark, before Dan sat up and pulled out, quickly tying off the condom and throwing it in the direction of his trashcan. Catherine almost expected him to move away, but he collapsed back against her and sighed, his lanky body wasn't actually that heavy against her, so she just laid there and enjoyed the afterglow.  
"That was amazing" she finally muttered, just wanting to fill the silence.  
"It was" Dan chuckled, pulling back for a moment to kiss her cheek. "Do you want to grab a shower now? or wait until the morning?"  
"I don't think my legs work" Catherine giggled, reaching up to play with his hair a little.  
"Me neither" he smirked, rolling off of her to lay on his back, the pair of them just staring up at his ceiling. "I hope the whole daddy thing didn't creep you out..."  
"It didn't" Catherine smiled, not bothering to mention that she was surprised herself.  
"Good..." he hummed, rolling to look at her. "And I uh... I'm glad you wanted to stay tonight..."  
"Me too" She hummed, rolling onto her side to pull him into a kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told you they were gonna have sex.
> 
> This chapter was quite long, but I couldn't really stop it halfway through XD


	16. Everyone else but you

"You're never going to guess what" Barry smirked, pulling his chair up to Arin's desk.  
"What?" the older man hummed, pausing what he was looking at.  
"Dan brought that chick home last night" he chuckled, resting his elbows on the table.  
"Oh damn, really?" Arin blinked, sitting up a little as he played with his headphones. "Did you hear anything?"  
"Not at first... they were pretty quiet, which was nice..." Barry muttered, bit his grin widened "Then they got louder..."  
"Fuck..." Arin smirked, leaning back in his seat. "Was it bad?"  
"Not like it usually is..." Barry shrugged "Like I said, it was pretty quiet at first, they must have been trying..."  
"Did you hear anything embarrassing?" Arin mumbled, leaning in a little.  
"Just the usual daddy stuff" Barry chuckled, shaking his head.  
"No!" Arin barked, rocking back as he laughed at his friend. "Dude, why?"  
"I don't know, it's kinda creepy?" Barry smirked.  
"Yeah..." Arin hummed before shuddering "Dude, I'd never want a woman to call me that..."  
"Call you what?"   
Arin and Barry's heads snapped up to see Dan walking in, his hair its usual mess on top of his head and his collar popped up. He looked tired, but a nice sort of tire, no grumpiness with the dark circles under his eyes.  
"Nothing" Arin hummed, grinning up at him. "How was your date?"  
"It was alright" Dan shrugged, pulling out his laptop without removing his jacket.  
"Only alright?" Arin blinked, moving his office chair to the sofa.  
"Yeah... the restaurant was nice, we had a good time" He mumbled, pulling out his headphones. He was trying desperately to be casual, but Barry shouted accross the room.  
"He knows!"  
"Fuck..." Dan groaned, letting his head drop back against the couch. "Thanks bear... appreciate it..." He shook his head a little, looking up at his friend. "What?"  
"so you guys had sex?" Arin smiled, resting his arms on the couch.  
"Yeah" Dan huffed back "And?"  
"Nothing man... how are you guys?" He asked, tilting his head a little.  
"What do you mean?" Dan blinked "We're fine"  
"Did you kick her out or did she stay the night?" Arin asked, resting his head on his arms.  
"I dropped her home before I came in... are we gonna play 20 questions all morning?" He sighed, looking up at his friend.  
"Just looking out for you dude... don't need to be defensive..." Arin sighed "You want to talk, I'm here for you..."  
"I know..." Dan mumbled, looking back at his computer. "It was strange last night..."   
"What do you mean?" Arin blinked, surprised he had actually started opening up there and then.  
"I don't know... it just seemed nice to just have her there afterwards..." Dan smiled. Arin couldn't help but smile back too.  
"That's sweet, dude... I'm happy for you" He muttered, touching his friend's arm. "And she was okay when you left her this morning?"  
"Yeah," Dan blinked "I even offered to bring her down here, see you guys, but she said she wanted to get home and do some stuff..."  
"It's nice, you seem to have found a balance" Arin hummed, looking over at his computer. "Well, I've got some stuff to do, but we'll talk about this later... let me know when you want lunch"

It was around two when Dan got a text, he didn't bother to check it just yet, but when his phone then started ringing, he glanced at the screen, noticing it was Catherine. He answered and pulled it to his ear.  
"Hey, what's up?" he mumbled, rubbing his eyes a little.  
"Nothing much, only Markiplier has been messaging me!" She sang over the other end.   
"Really?" Dan hummed "That's great babe, what's he been saying?"  
"He said he really wants to do a cover with me!" she hummed.  
"Seriously?" Dan grinned "That's awesome..."  
"He said he found my videos with Suzy and asked how I knew her..." Catherine mumbled  
"And what did you say?" Dan frowned, having a feeling that she wanted him to ask.  
"I just said I was a friend of yours and you introduced us..." She explained. "Was that okay?"  
"Yeah, babe, that's fine" Dan nodded, wondering how he would've felt if she'd told Mark that she was his girlfriend?...   
"Okay, well, I'm gonna go. I just wanted to let you know" Catherine sighed, sounding a little happier. "This is going to be huge for my channel..."  
"It really is" Dan grinned, realizing that this was really going to make her page explode.  
"I mean... first Suzy, then Mark... fuck, I hope it doesn't look weird that all these big YouTubers are suddenly doing videos with me" He could hear the frown in her voice.  
"Babe, don't worry about it too much" Dan sighed, grinning a little at her worry. "This is going to open up so much for you" there was a hum from the other end before she sighed.  
"Yeah, you're right" She muttered "Thanks, Dan, I'll talk to you later"  
"Okay," Dan hummed before the line went dead.  
"What's that face?" Arin chuckled, sitting down at his desk.  
"Mark's doing something with Cat..." Dan smiled, stretching out a little.  
"That's sweet..." Arin mumbled, thinking for a moment before looking up. "What about you?"  
"What about me what?" Dan chuckled, shaking his hair out a little.  
"Have you done anything with her?" Arin blinked, pulling his food out of the take-out bag. Dan blinked back for a second before it hit him.  
"Shit..." He frowned.  
"I'll take that as a no..." Arin mumbled, turning a little in his chair.  
"What do I do now?" Dan huffed "If I offer now, I'm just going to look like I'm doing it because Mark is doing it!"  
"Well that is the reason" Arin muttered through a mouthful of his sandwich. "I mean, you never actually thought about doing a video with her..."  
"I just... she never really hinted towards it or anything" Dan sighed, feeling like a pretty crappy boyfriend all of a sudden.  
"Dude, she's been talking about doing covers with people for months... I was close to offering, but I can't do her kind of stuff... we said we'd do something silly for a holiday or something" Arin waved off, now focusing more on his computer.  
"What?" Dan snapped, sitting up a little.  
"What?" Arin echoed back.  
"You're doing a video with her?" He asked. Arin sighed, swallowing his mouthful.  
"Yeah" He shrugged "She called Suzy the other day and I answered..."  
"Great!" Dan snapped, throwing his arms up. "So everyone's offered to do a video with her but me..."  
"Well, maybe offer after she does this with Mark?" Arin sighed, shaking his head a little. "I'm sure she'd be thrilled to do something with you... and she's still new on the scene, she can always do with the views..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aw Dan, he's trying...
> 
> Did we like Markiplier coming into this?  
> Hope you guys like what's coming... there might be some pictures to go with it, so remember to check out the notes after each chapter. Especially the ones coming up with music videos!  
> (yes I said music videos!!!!)


	17. Needed on Set

"Hey, Cat" Dan sighed, leaning back on his sofa. He finally had some time at home, after Arin all but threw him out of the office. "I was wondering if you wanted to meet up? I haven't seen you since our last date..."  
"That would be really nice!" Catherine sighed from the other end. "I'm recording with Mark today, but you're more than welcome to come down and be my groupie" He giggled a little at that.  
"Sure thing babe, just text me the location... want me to bring you anything?"   
"Nah, we're good here. Just bring your handsome self" She chuckled, the bustle of the crew around her.  
"How much more do you have to do?" Dan mumbled, getting to his feet to try and get ready.  
"Jeez... Mark!" She called, her voice a little muffled as she must've pulled the phone away from her. "After today, how much more?" There were a few voices for a moment before Catherine returned, sighing a little.  
"Quite a bit still to go... Mark tried to do the editing, but I've told him that I'll be okay," She explained, "This is seriously the coolest thing I've ever worked on... I have like five costume changes throughout the video"  
"That sounds crazy" Dan chuckled, grabbing his wallet.

The project had turned from a simple cover into a full music video. After Mark had found out how close Catherine was with the group, he was over the moon to work with her. Catherine felt a little bad for just how much he was putting towards it, but he brushed it off saying that he'd wanted to do some serious singing for quite a while now. Dan still had no idea what song they were covering, or what the video was even going to be like, Catherine had kept it all very quiet.  
Sadly between the two of them working and Catherine being booked for filming and recording, they hadn't had a chance to go on another date. Really Dan should've been thankful, he was so scared of things moving so fast, that now they were moving at a glacial speed...  
He quickly grabbed up his keys and headed out as soon as he got the address for the video shoot.  
It wasn't far from Mark's, and he figured that he was the one that had set this up. Mark was actually the first to recognise his car and bounded over to him to greet him.  
"Hey, Dan!" He beamed, pulling him into a hug "Cat said you'd be down, it's great to see you"  
"Good to see you too, buddy" Dan grinned, patting his back. "So how's it going?"  
"Dude, she's so cool to work with. From like day one, she had this amazing vision in her head of what she wanted and how it should all come together, it was nice to have someone take the reigns and not be like, intimidated..." Mark gushed.  
"Yeah, I know what you mean" Dan hummed.  
"I mean, it's kinda cute she doesn't know much about youtube... makes it a little easier to talk to her..." Mark muttered, his cheeks darkening a little. Dan eyed him for a moment before noticing what he was in. Mark was dressed in only a dressing gown and a pair of sandals.  
"What's going on?" He smirked, gesturing to his clothes.  
"Wh-well" Mark spluttered, pulling his robe around him a little tighter. "You didn't call to check I was decent, I don't have my face on or anything!" The two of them chuckled for a moment before Mark explained "It's kinda awkward walking around in costume, I just came out here to find you, Cat's upstairs filming"

Mark led the way into the small building and upstairs into the recording space. It was a basic hired room, a few tables set up to the sides with lighting and cameras all focused on a bright backdrop. He was about to step further into the room when he heard a squeak. He spun round to see Catherine in a similar get up to Mark's as she quickly pulled him into a hug.  
"Hey you!" she grinned "Hope you found the place okay"  
"Yeah," Dan chuckled, hugging her back "Wasn't too bad" He pulled back a little to look her over. Apart from the robe, all he could see was a pair of black heels and some pretty sexy stockings. Her hair was a mess, but he knew wig hair when he saw it, her makeup, however, was still perfect, she must've just finished when he arrived.  
"Should I be worried that no-one's wearing clothes?" Dan mumbled, smirking at her.  
"Yeah, I should've told you... it's not a music video anymore" Catherine sighed, frowning up at him.  
"What?" Dan frowned back down at her.  
"Yeah, we're shooting a soft porn video..." She giggled, her serious face disappearing.  
"Fuck I thought you were being serious!" Dan grinned, shaking his head "Babe, I don't know when you're joking..."  
"Nah, I just don't want you to see my costume until the video goes up..." She mumbled, grinning up at him.  
"So why's mark in a robe?" Dan smirked, running a hand down her arm.  
"Because he's basically naked" Catherine smirked back, turning to their friend. Mark shook his head chuckling as Dan tried hard not to glare at him.  
"It'll all make sense when you see it, really" Mark insisted.  
"Babe, you've worn worse in your videos, trust me" Catherine grinned, touching his arm.  
"Okay..." He smiled back at her.  
Just then one of the crew approached, tapping Catherine's arm.  
"We're ready to do the next scene with you" The man smiled before wandering off.  
"Oh crap, I gotta put my wig back on..." She frowned, biting her lip a little, turning to him. "Well, maybe one out of five outfits won't give it away" she giggled, squeezing his hand. "I'll leave you with Mark while I film.  
"Sure thing" Dan smiled as she disappeared. "So what's going on?" he asked, turning to Mark.  
"Honestly. this whole video is hilarious" Mark chuckled, shaking his head "I was worried at first about the whole reaction from my fans, but considering how yours are with your videos, I think it'll be okay..."   
"Who's idea was it to wear... no clothes?" Dan mumbled.  
"Hers..." Mark said quickly, giggling "Nah, she had her outfits planned already... we were going to leave my costume to the other dancers, but it's kind of a nice way to put me in the video... I wanted to keep it focused on her, it's on her channel after all"  
"So... what's happening?" Dan pressed, wanting to hear more, he still wasn't comfortable about the two of them being very undressed in a video together. Mark frowned for a moment before stepping a little closer.  
"I never told you this, okay?..." He smiled, glancing over at the set before turning back to him. "She's like... dressed as all these curvy characters, and the backup dancers are kinda dressed to go with her... like, okay dude, I never showed you this" he chuckled, untying his robe a little to show a pair of brown shorts with a tail.  
"What the fuck?" Dan couldn't help but chuckle.  
"Yeah... I'm scooby doo" he giggled, quickly tying his robe back up. "She's dressed as Velma... I've got this huge head that I wear with it too, it's so silly" Dan felt a little relieved knowing that it was more for comedy than anything, at least, Catherine would be wearing a costume... He didn't know how he felt about fans ogling her in next to nothing...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, Mark gets a little naked XD I'm sorry, I know it's totally out of character, but it leads to an interesting point in the story!!!


	18. Jinkeys

After a few minutes, Catherine reappeared in her outfit, quickly skipping over to him.  
"I just realized you're gonna know what song we're doing" She pouted, smoothing down her skirt. It was an obvious Velma Dinkley outfit. Her long ginger hair had been tucked into a short, auburn bob with a thick fringe that sat over her eyebrows. She had some fake freckles painted over her own ones and a ton of blush. Her outfit, however, wasn't as innocent as her makeup, wearing a tiny red skirt and an orange cropped jumper. Dan couldn't help but gawk at her as she giggled, looking down at herself.  
"How do I look?" she muttered, biting her lip a little.  
"Mark's gonna have to hold me back..." he smirked, tilting his head a little. "And it's okay babe, I don't mind hearing what the song is..."  
"But I wanted it to be a surprise" She sighed, rocking back on her red heels, Dan noticed, contrasted against her orange stockings. "But I guess the rest of the video will be a surprise, I want you here for support" She grinned, pulling him into another hug.  
"You guys are so cute..." Mark chuckled behind them "Dan needed a friend he could just cuddle with... it's a little weird with Arin" Dan pulled back at the word friend like it burned him.  
"Cat, are you ready?" One of the dancers called, catching all their attention.  
"Yeah!" she called back "We'll go for lunch after this, okay?" She didn't wait for an answer as she rushed to her mark.

Dan just stood back, not wanting to talk to Mark at the moment as he watched her pose herself, ready to start. To get the lip sync right, someone must have just been playing the song over their phone as they started rolling. He immediately recognized the song as she started, her hips swinging a little as she waited for the words to kick in.  
"Because you know I'm all about that bass, 'bout that bass, no treble... I'm all about that bass 'bout that bass, no treble..." The was an immediate change to her character, the same thing he'd seen the night she'd been Jessica Rabbit. She held herself differently, her eyes had a strange fire to them as she stared down the camera perfectly. Dan found himself just as lost as when he'd seen her perform then, of course, he was turned on by the outfit, but it was her confidence, the way she could work a camera... He must have really zoned out because it was over within moments, Catherine was tugging his arm and giggling at his expression.  
"How was it?" She grinned, looking up at him.  
"It was amazing, baby girl" He grinned, pulling her into a hug.  
"I'm glad you like it... I'm gonna go get changed and we'll grab something to eat." She hummed, already pulling off her wig as she rushed off to change. Mark had left at some point during the recording, leaving Dan to just wander around.  
"Um... excuse me" He heard behind him, causing him to turn. There was a young woman stood there, he'd noticed her by one of the lights so he assumed she was part of the crew.  
"Hey, what's up?" He smiled, pushing his hands into his pockets.  
"I just wanted to say, I'm a huge fan" She grinned, almost gushing over him.  
"Aw, that's really sweet, thank you" he grinned "What's your name?"  
"Jenifer" She giggled, playing with her hair. Dan couldn't help but look her over, she was pretty, and strangely was his exact type... Small, athletic build, blonde hair, but he didn't feel even a tug of attraction towards her, all he could think about was getting to see Catherine's video after all of this, but he stayed focused on talking to his fan.  
"Man, I thought I was lucky meeting Mark here, but to be able to meet you too!" She sighed  
"Ah, we're all friends..." Dan chuckled "How did you get involved with this?"  
"Oh, Catherine put out a message on her channel asking for media students and stuff to help out, I was super excited to be a part of this, having my name on something with Markiplier in it... it's really gonna help my portfolio" She was almost jumping with excitement.  
"That's really cool, what area are you hoping to get into?" He hummed, pleased she was actually thinking about her own career through this.  
"Well, I'm trying to get into lighting... it's weird, I know, but it's so overlooked, and it can really make or break a good video!" She explained.  
"Well, you really sound like you've got the right attitude, I wish you lots of luck" He grinned, tilting his head a little. Suddenly Catherine stepped out in something a little more 'her'.  
"Hey babe" She grinned, wrapping her arm around his waist. "Oh, hey Jenifer, is everything okay?"  
"Yeah, we were just having a chat about her studies" Dan smiled, returning the gesture and pulling her a little closer.  
"Oh my gosh, are you two like a thing?" She asked, her eyes widening a little. Dan could feel Catherine freeze, wondering who she was more worried for if she answered, but she put on a convincing smile and glanced up at Dan, looking for him to reply.  
"We're very close friends" he smiled, hoping he was answering correctly... that seemed to be the story she'd been giving people...  
"Yeah" Catherine grinned, but by her body language, Dan could tell he'd said the wrong thing... "We met a few months back, he's really been supporting my singing" She explained.  
"That's awesome" Jenifer grinned "I just thought... you two would make a cute couple"  
"Couple?" Catherine giggled "Just one woman for Danny Sexbang? No way" The three of them laughed it off and they said their goodbyes, Catherine quickly calling a goodbye to Mark before she walked out.

Once they were in the car park, Dan grabbed her arm.  
"Hey, wait up a sec" he frowned, causing her to turn.  
"What's up?" she blinked.  
"What was that in there?" he mumbled, stepping in a little closer so they wouldn't be overheard.  
"What?" Catherine asked, looking a little confused.  
"The whole 'no one woman for Danny Sexbang' stuff..." he pouted, feeling a little childish.  
"Well," Catherine shrugged a little, pushing her hands into the pockets of her skirt. "You know, we haven't really put a label on this, and I was starting to think that you weren't gonna... I haven't been pushing things because I honestly really enjoy what we've got going on here..."  
"I've been trying" Dan sighed, tugging at her arm so he could hold her hand. "I honestly want this to be something..."  
"Really?" Catherine sighed "I don't want you feeling bad, saying something you don't mean and then backing out... please give me that, Dan..." Dan huffed, running his other hand through his hair.  
"I've been doing a lot of thinking since our last date..." He mumbled "And... I really want us to be something"  
"Something... like?" Catherine pressed, a small smile tugging at her lips.  
"I want to be your boyfriend..." Dan muttered under his breath. Catherine leaned in a little, a smirk on her lips.  
"I'm sorry? Your what?..." She muttered back, just as quietly. Dan grinned, grabbing her and pulling her to his chest so she was muffled by his jacket.  
"YOUR BOYFRIEND YOU BUTT!" he shouted, letting her push away quickly, her smile just as wide as his.  
"Really?" she bit her lip, almost jumping  
"Really..." he nodded, suddenly feeling Catherine jump into his arms, squealing a little.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry, it's like the worst song XD But I really wanted Mark and Catherine to sing it, and the stuff I have planned for the video is just so good!!!!  
> The song is of course 'All about that Bass' by Megan Trainor
> 
> Here's her Velma outfit for the video - http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/q583/Ssssherlock_Holmes/velma_zpscf0np7o8.jpg


	19. Mario Kart can suck it

"So you've made it official?" Suzy grinned, sitting back on Catherine's couch.  
"Yeah," Catherine grinned "I mean... I think so" She sighed "I'm crazy nervous he might back out... but so far he hasn't given me any reason to worry..."  
"Ah it's only natural... like you said, with his internet persona, it's hard to think about him settling down with one girl... but man, I'm so glad he found a chick like you"  
"Oh shush!" Catherine grinned, smacking her with her pillow. "If you weren't married I'd date you, don't worry"  
"Arin never has to know!" she giggled, setting up her DS to be captured.  
"Ah man, let's get this all out before we record... I can't have Dan and Arin freaking out over this the next time I'm round" Catherine giggled, making sure they had everything before they recorded. They had decided to set a little time together to play something for Suzy's channel, try and get Catherine into the idea of gaming videos. It wasn't anything intense, they were going to play a few rounds of Mario Kart and see how she did.  
"No pressure, okay?" Suzy smiled "If you're not feeling it, it doesn't have to go up"  
"It's okay, I'm good" Catherine nodded, holding her own DS "I'm ready!"

"Hey Youtube, it's Mortimer, and I'm here with SongCat!" Suzy sang, gesturing wildly in Catherine's direction. "And we're playing Mario Kart... you wanna tell them why we're playing Mario Kart?"  
"Because I'm poor and that's the only game I have on my DS that you can play with friends" Catherine chuckled, waving her pink DS a little.  
"So we're just gonna do a few friendly matches, try and get Cat into the world of let's play" Suzy explained, pressing start on the menu.  
"Yeah, I uh... wasn't really into Youtube until a few months ago" Catherine smirked, glancing as Suzy as they went through the selections.  
"Okay, who do you wanna play?" Suzy asked, clicking through to character selection. "Oh wow, you've got everyone unlocked"  
"Of course I've got everyone unlocked! I have no life" Catherine giggled "And I'm Daisy... forever and always..."  
"Why Daisy?" Suzy grinned, her shoulders falling a little as I picked her character.  
"Because she's ginger and we gotta stick together" she giggled, choosing the princess.  
"Okay, you have more right to be her than I do..." She smirked, "Man, Arin is gonna kill me if I take his girl... but it's like, ladies night, so I feel we should both be princesses"  
"Ooh, talk about making Arin jealous" Catherine grinned, leaning towards the camera a little. 

They only lasted a few matches, ending in Suzy handing her ass to her before Catherine gave up, throwing down her DS and storming off, the camera still rolling as Suzy tried hard to breathe through her laughter. Not caring if this was kept in, Catherine pulled out her phone, knowing she was well within the range of the microphone as she called her boyfriend. There was a pause before Catherine started her rant.  
"How the fuck can you do this shit as a job?!" she shouted, stomping in front of Suzy as she paced the room. "I want to kill Suzy and throw my fucking DS at a wall! What do I do?!"  
There was another pause before Catherine sighed, throwing herself down on the couch, in the shot again.  
"Okay, so we'll pick this up next time on KKG!" Suzy grinned, finally able to speak.  
"No!" Catherine snapped "We are never doing this shit again!"  
"Okay, well, don't forget to check out Cat's channel, there's a link down below" She giggled, holding her sides. "Hopefully, I haven't ruined her singing voice by making her shout... I'm sorry" She grinned, bursting into another fit of giggles.  
Catherine jumped up and switched off the camera, running her hands through her hair in frustration.  
"You okay?" Suzy grinned.  
"Yeah," Catherine huffed, trying hard not to smile at her friend before the two of them started giggling again.  
"That was awesome, I can't wait to post it" Suzy hummed, starting to pack up her stuff.  
"It was fun" Catherine agreed, nodding a little as she switched off her DS and looked back at her phone.  
"Do you want me to edit that stuff out?" Suzy asked as she packed her camera away.  
"Nah, I didn't say Dan's name..." Catherine mumbled, shrugging a little. "Or say anything that hinted at a relationship..."  
"Do you think Dan would announce it?" the older girl asked, sitting back beside her.  
"I don't know, we haven't really talked about it... he said he wants to call me his girlfriend, but it's only gone as far as around friends..." Catherine explained.  
"Well, what do you want?" Suzy mumbled, leaning in a little. Catherine groaned, shaking her head with a grin.  
"Fuck, I'd love to shout from the rooftops that I'm Dan's girlfriend..." She chuckled.  
"Well, he'll get there" Suzy muttered, squeezing her arm, "you guys seem to be working out really well..." Catherine grinned back at her friend, loving how even though they'd only been friends for a short time, they seemed so close.

Back at the Grump space, Dan was still staring at his phone, a wide grin on his face as they recorded.  
"Dude, she sounded so pissed, you might not have a wife to go home to!" the older man chuckled, looking up at his friend.  
"What were they playing?" Arin asked, trying hard to concentrate on the level he'd been stuck on.  
"I have no idea..." Dan giggled, sending her a text to find out.  
They rounded off that last episode and decided on a break, Arin hopping up to use the bathroom while Dan grabbed them some drinks. As they both returned to the recording room, Dan got a reply.  
"Oh shit," Dan grinned. "They're playing Mario Kart"   
"Shit!" Arin gasped, shaking his head. "Well, it was nice being married for a few years..."  
"It's cool that Cat and Suz are getting along..." Dan mumbled, putting the jokes aside for a bit.  
"Ah, they were bound to hit it off... they're both freaky goth chicks that like dorks" Arin chuckled.  
"Ah I'll have you know, she doesn't think I'm a dork" Dan grinned.  
"Dude, she doesn't have to think, she knows you're a dork" Arin snapped, grinning back at him.  
"Yeah, well she seems pretty happy with this dork" Dan sighed, looking down at his phone. He was about to get lost in thought about her when Arin's loud gagging snapped him back to reality.  
"You're just fucking gross" Arin grinned, shoving him off the sofa. "No more sappy talk in my recording room or you're fired!"  
"I'll talk about my girl all I want, Hanson!" Dan growled, dragging his friend to the floor with him. The pair of them tumbled over one another for a moment before the gave up in a heap, the pair of them too tired to really play fight.  
"Dude, I'm too old for this shit..." Dan groaned, shoving Arin's leg off his chest.  
"You're only as young as who you're feeling..." Arin wiggled his eyebrows before trying to sit up.  
"I should go see her" Dan mumbled, mainly to himself.  
"Tell you what, get through another... five episodes with me and I'll let you have the afternoon off tomorrow" Arin smiled, sitting back on the couch.


	20. Home Movie

Arin was true to his word, and after starting the day early so he could get enough tracking done for NSP, Dan was gathering up his things to go and meet Catherine. His list of things to do was getting shorter and shorter, and things were finally starting to fall into place.  
The traffic that even hadn't been bad either as he drove accross town, parking up outside her apartment. He shut off the engine and hopped up to the door, pressing the buzzer to be let in.

Inside, Catherine was just clearing a few things off her table, she'd been working on something for work, and didn't want to scare him with a ton of kids stuff left out everywhere. She left the door unlocked as she quickly pushed the boxes to one side, putting the kettle on to boil as Dan walked in.  
"Hey," She grinned, pulling him into a quick kiss.  
"Hey, you" he chuckled, kissing her back.  
"You'll never guess what my mum found" she hummed, looking up at him. Dan eyed her for a moment before grinning  
"What did she find?"  
"My first live performance" She beamed, taking his hand and pulling him into the living room. She had an old VCR set up, with a grainy picture paused on the screen.  
"Wow, how old were you?" Dan smiled, sitting down on the couch.  
"I was eight?... maybe nine..." She chuckled, sitting down beside him and pressing play. The picture was a little better when it was playing, showing a little girl on a small stage with a guitar that was far too big for her. It was all very obvious 90's with her long hair pulled back from her face with clips and her too-big overalls with patches ironed on them.  
"Oh man, is that you?" Dan giggled, leaning in a little.  
"Yeah, that's me" Catherine sighed, shaking her head. "My dad wouldn't buy me a smaller guitar... he said I'd grow into it"  
"And did you?" Dan smirked, poking fun at her height.  
"Yes!" She snapped, shoving him hard. "I still have it actually!"  
"Really?" Dan blinked, tilting his head a little.  
"Yeah, it's in my room on the wall" Catherine smirked, "You weren't paying much attention when you came back to my place, were you?"  
"To be fair, there was a lot of stuff going on..." He mumbled, looking back at the screen as little Catherine stepped up. There was a loud cheer as the camera shook, Dan assuming it was one of her parents.  
"Okay, what are you going to sing?" A voice asked out of shot.  
"Uh..." Catherine squeaked, pulling the mic down to her level. "I'm gonna play Test for Echo by Rush..." Dan just let out a squeal, rocking back in his seat a little.  
"What?" Catherine chuckled, looking up at him, but he quickly shushed her listening as younger Catherine started playing. It was really quite impressive to see such a small kid play, but what was more impressive was seeing the way Catherine's obvious stage fright disappeared as she started to sing.  
"Here we go...vertigo... Video vertigo... Test for echo" There was another cheer from whoever was filming. Dan just sat back, grinning through the entire video until it got to the instrumental part, he was about to say something but quickly covered his mouth as little Catherine's head dropped, eyes completely focused on playing. The song ended on that, but to Dan's surprise, there were very few people clapping as she bowed, shuffling off stage. From there, the angle was a little off as the cameraman moved, meeting the little girl by the side of the hall  
"You were amazing!" A very thick Jersy accent rang out over the video.  
"Dad, I sucked" young Catherine pouted  
"What are you talking about? You owned that stage!" A hand reached out and planted it on her shoulder. "I got it all on film! And when you're a star some day, your dear old dad's got it all on here! Your first live show!" Catherine paused the video after that, sitting back with a strange smile.  
"So what do you think?" She asked, turning to look at Dan who was still in awe of how she had played back then.  
"Who taught you to play like that?" He sighed, still grinning at her.  
"Just some teacher my dad hired" she shrugged "I don't think I really appreciated how good I was until college when I started singing properly..."  
"I can't believe you never went anywhere with it, with talent from such a young age" Dan sighed, shaking his head a little.  
"I gave up for a while when my parents split..." She frowned, sitting back a little.  
"I'm sorry" Dan sighed, sitting back with her.  
"It's fine, they're friends now... but I was like ten at the time? I didn't take it well, I blamed my dad for a lot of stuff which I understand wasn't his fault now..." she explained, "When I go down for the holidays, he comes and stays with my mum, the whole family sort of comes together..."  
"That's really nice" Dan mumbled, smiling at her. "You're really lucky.."  
"I know" Catherine hummed, hearing the kettle in the kitchen start to steam "I'll make us some tea" She quickly jumped up, Dan following her to the kitchen.  
"Hey, so Thanksgiving is coming up, do you have any plans?" He asked, leaning against the doorway. If Catherine was going away, it'd really give him a chance to finish everything.  
"Uh... no, not thanksgiving..." She mumbled, reaching in the cupboards for tea and sugar. "I'm seeing family a few weeks after"  
"Okay," Dan nodded, walking over to help her.  
"Thanks" she mumbled, looking up at him. "Do you want green tea? I have some"  
"No, normal tea is fine" he hummed, hopping up to sit on the counter.  
"My family sometimes skip out on thanksgiving" Catherine explained, setting out two mugs.  
"It's fine, I was just wondering when you'd be free over the holidays" Dan smiled, looking at the collection of magnets on her fridge, many of them holding cards with 'thank you teacher' over them.  
"I mean, I go and stay for Hannukah a few weeks later, so it doesn't make sense to make two trips" Catherine continued, walking over to get some milk.  
"What?" Dan blinked. Catherine chuckled, standing up to look at him.  
"Yeah, I'm Jewish..." She smiled, leaning on the fridge door. "Not super religious, but enough that I go home for the holidays... see family" She grabbed the milk and closed the door, continuing to make tea.  
"Can we just stop a second?" He muttered, causing her to turn.  
"What?" she blinked back at him.  
"You're telling me that I meet this super hot girl, who's crazy talented and had a stable career, isn't a crazy fan, has a sweet taste in music AND I can take her home to my mother?" He grinned, listing off on his fingers.  
"Well I don't know about some of those points but..." She shrugged, grinning back at him. Dan pushed himself off the counter to pull her into a kiss.  
"If this is all a setup, please tell me" he giggled.  
"Yeah, it's totally a setup, Arin paid me to be the perfect girl" she smirked, shoving him a little. "You massive dork... I'm real, and I'm not as perfect as you may think I am..."  
"Haven't found a fault yet" He smirked, taking his tea and wandering back to the living room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aww baby Catherine  
> Like she said, the song was Test for Echo by Rush


	21. A little more about me

"So why do you go and stay with your family?" Dan asked over his tea, now they were back in the living room.  
"It kinda started when I left home, I would come back for my birthday, other holidays... but with work and stuff, I stopped travelling out there..." Catherine sighed, her legs pulled under her as she snuggled into his side. "Then my mum had a fall, wound up in the hospital... now she isn't great with getting around, her new partner is super supportive... but I hadn't seen her for two years, and realized that if something worse had happened..." he stopped for a moment, realizing just how upset she was getting.  
"no, I get it" Dan assured her, squeezing her a little.  
"Yeah..." Catherine swallowed, rubbing her eyes "So I just made sure that I made it to hers for at least that week..."  
"It's nice" Dan smiled, looking down at her  
"Yeah..." She sighed "I haven't seen her since last year, I was really ill over her birthday, so I've got a lot of making up to do"  
"Where does she live?" Dan asked, resting his head on her's  
"Well, pretty sure you caught my Dad's accent..." She chuckled, looking up at him.  
"No way you're from Jersey..." Dan grinned "Where's your accent?"  
"Didn't grow up there... We lived in Pennsylvania when I and my brothers moved out, she moved back to her hometown, she missed it what with us all leaving the nest"  
"So what brought you all the way here?" Dan asked, "You're a long way from home..." Catherine frowned a little from that, Dan feeling her tense up. "You don't have to tell me if you're not comfortable..." Catherine sighed loudly, pulling away. "Really, Cat... you don't have to tell me, I was just curious"  
"No... it's nothing I'm ashamed of" She mumbled, "Just, haven't talked about it in a while..."  
Dan immediately regretted asking, he didn't like dragging up unhappy shit with anyone... He almost thought she wasn't going to say, but then she took a deep breath. "I was engaged... almost married" she explained, "to a guy around your age, but this was a while ago... I was like 22?..."  
"Fuck..." Dan couldn't help but mutter.  
"It was a pretty weird relationship... almost cost me my job..." she huffed "He was a dad at the nursery I worked in, I don't even know how we ended up so close..." Dan frowned, sitting up a little. "But it turned into this really fucked relationship and I left him..." She felt Dan squeeze har arm a little, pulling her out of her thoughts.  
"I'm sorry I brought it up" he mumbled, leaning in to kiss the top of her head.   
"It's fine, I'm a lot happier now" She smiled up at him. "A lot more grown up..."  
"You've got things better worked out than I do" he chuckled, shaking his head.  
"Ah, you've got things worked out..." She smirked, jabbing him a little. "You've got a pretty sweet life..."  
"I do now..." Dan muttered, grinning at her. He realized that he'd fallen very quickly into the 'boyfriend' role, remembering how nice it was to have someone he could just call if he wanted a talk or drop by if he wanted to be around someone... He almost couldn't believe he'd been so scared... Catherine was truly a nice girl, so down to earth and almost selfless...  
"Okay, Mr. Romantic..." She huffed, jumping up and making her way towards the hall. "We going out tonight or staying in?" Dan was about to reply when she quickly cut in. "Before we plan, what are you doing tomorrow morning?"  
"Uh..." Dan blinked, quickly pulling out his phone. "I've got some recording to do with Brian" He frowned, knowing that limited what they could do.  
"What time do you need to meet him...?" She hummed, leaning against the door frame.  
"Uh... ten?" Dan mumbled, looking at his calendar on his phone.  
"So, sleepover at mine?..." she giggled, walking back over to him to take his hands.  
"That sounds nice..." he smirked, pulling her down onto his lap.  
"You wanna borrow something of mine to wear tomorrow?" she muttered, kissing his forehead  
"Hm... somehow I don't think your dresses would suit me" he chuckled, kissing along her jaw.  
"I have some band t's you might like..." she chuckled, nipping at his bottom lip.  
"Baby girl, you keep this up, we won't need any clothes..." He growled.  
"Come on" She grinned, jumping off his lap and disappearing down the hall. Dan groaned, sitting there for a moment to calm down before following her. He found her in her room rummaging through her wardrobe.  
"Here," she said, throwing a shirt his way. Dan caught it and unfolded it to see the Pink Floyd logo accross the front.  
"Nice..." he chuckled, sitting down on the bed. Now that he didn't have Catherine wrapped around him, he was able to take it all in. She did indeed have her old guitar mounted on the wall, the body of it littered with stickers that were all worn and peeling. There was a string missing and he could see a lot of wear, but it was nice that she still had it. There were a few other instruments hung up, a ukulele, a violin... He moved to look at the rest of the room and spotted a keyboard in the corner.  
"Seriously, why didn't you pursue something in music?" He sighed, looking back at her.  
"I don't like mixing hobbies with work" She shrugged, pulling out a pair of short and a large shirt, "it takes all the fun out of it..." Dan hummed a little, looking back at her walls. If he didn't know how old she was, he would've sworn it belonged to a teenager with the number of posters and photographs stuck everywhere. He was about to comment on them, but as he turned back, Catherine was undressing.  
"Hey, that's my job" he chuckled darkly, getting to his feet and running his hands down her sides.  
"St-op!" Catherine gasped, jumping away from him, a wide grin on her face.  
"What was that?" He giggled, reaching out for her again.  
"No! Dan, I'm seriously fucking ticklish!" She squealed, slapping his hands away.  
"Oh you shouldn't have told me that!" he grinned, grabbing her sides and digging his fingers in.  
"No!" She screamed, kicking out at him. "No! Dan, I mean it!" Suddenly her foot connected with his knee sending him to the floor with a groan. "Oh shit, I'm so sorry!" she gasped, kneeling down to look at him.  
"It's okay... damn you've got a kick on you..." he groaned, rubbing his leg. "No more tickling..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah things got nice, Danny seems happy...  
> is it gonna last?  
> hm... I dunno...
> 
> there wasn't any music...


	22. Movie Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's gonna be sex... I'm sorry...

"So, a sleepover is a yes" Catherine hummed, looking through takeaways on her phone. "What do you want to eat? and what do you want to watch?"  
"Hm... not fussy" Dan smiled, now padding about in just his boxers and his shirt.  
"Pizza" Catherine's expression changed, almost glaring at him from the other side of the room. It wasn't a question.  
"How about Chinese?" he mumbled, smirking at her.  
"How about pizza?" She mumbled back, causing Dan to let out a bark of laughter.  
"Okay baby girl, Pizza" He grinned, walking over to her. "You order it, I'll go find a film"  
"Pick something you haven't seen" She muttered "I've heard you on your channel... you haven't seen anything good"  
"Excuse me!" He gasped in mock hurt. "I happen to have a very good taste in films!"  
"Bullshit, go pick a film you haven't seen before" She chuckled, wandering into her living room.  
Sadly they spent the next twenty minutes sorting through Catherine's collection of horror films and old musicals until Dan finally pulled out Moulin Rouge.  
"Oh fuck" Catherine giggled, lounging back on her couch now.  
"What?" Dan snapped, collapsing back on his ass. "Why not this one?"  
"No, sure" She grinned, sitting up a little. "We can watch it, I just can't believe you've not seen it"  
"It looks like a total chick film..." Dan huffed, throwing the case to her.  
"It's not so bad... it's quite sexy..." Catherine hummed, taking the disk out and putting it in the DVD player.  
"You ordered the pizza, right?" Dan grinned, sitting back on the couch.  
"Yep... when you were trying to convince me you could handle watching Under the Skin" Catherine smirked.  
"You said Scarlet Johanson was naked in it!" Dan whined in protest.  
"Yeah and she's also a fucking alien and it's creepy as shit!" Catherine snapped back, still smiling at him.  
"So what happens in this?" Dan asked, wrapping his arm around her.  
"Nichole Kidman does burlesque..." Catherine sighed, resting back against his chest as she started the film.

2 hours and 2 pizzas later, Dan was shouting at the TV.  
"Fuck man... seriously?" he swallowed, furiously wiping at his eyes.  
"They told you in the beginning she dies! They also told you throughout the film!" Catherine sighed, also wiping her eyes.  
"Yeah but I thought it would be a twist or something..." He muttered  
"What? His love just cures tuberculosis?" Catherine huffed.  
"That's what she died of!" Dan snapped, turning to her.  
"Yeah!" Catherine giggled "What did you think she died of?"  
"Something you can fucking die of!" He groaned, falling back against the couch.  
"You couldn't cure tuberculosis back then... they didn't know what it was" Catherine sighed, patting his arm.  
"Oh, but they knew the fucking words to Rhythm of the night!" Dan huffed, folding his arms.  
"Babe, did that film upset you?" she pouted, resting on his chest.  
"No..." Dan pouted back before quickly pulling out his phone. "Take a picture for me"  
"What?" Catherine chuckled, taking it and opening his camera.  
"Just take it, I'll upload it" He grinned, sitting back a little. Catherine sighed, shaking her head a little as Dan started crying dramatically, pulling a truly awful face. She took the picture and handed it back to him, waiting for his explanation. He quickly typed something in before turning the screen back to her. She'd managed to catch his face at a particularly awkward moment, which now had the caption 'no more movie nights!' on the NSP Instagram page. She couldn't help but giggle, wondering if he would explain or just leave it to people to comment.  
"Okay," She giggled, reaching over to check her own phone. "It's getting late... want to move this to the bedroom?" She muttered, leaning in to kiss his jaw.  
"Hm... what's in the bedroom?" he muttered innocently, running his hands through her hair.  
"Your girlfriend... naked" Catherine giggled, pulling back to look into his eyes before rushing off to her room, Dan hot on her heels.

Once in her room, she grabbed Dan, pushing him onto the bed.  
"You lied! You still have clothes on" he giggled, rolling them so he was on top.  
"Why don't you fix that?" she smirked, stretching her arms above her head so he had full access to her. Dan grinned, sitting back so he could pull off her shirt, quickly leaning in to kiss and bite at her breasts, too distracted to keep undressing her for the moment. He brought his hands down, playing with what skin he couldn't reach with his mouth, pinching and twisting the nipple he wasn't kissing.  
"Dan!" Catherine gasped, arching off the bed. "Babe, take your shirt off..."  
"I'll get to it baby girl... just lay back and enjoy" he growled against her, his mouth moving down her chest and stomach, stopping at the waistband of her shorts. Catherine's breathing quickened a little, lifting her head to watch as he pulled them down her legs, throwing them to the side. She let her legs fall open, earning a growl of approval from her boyfriend.  
"So wet for me already..." he muttered, leaning in to kiss along her abdomen before he dipped lower.  
Dan started slow. Long, lazy licks along the edges of her lips, turning to gentle kissing and sucking, a taste inside Catherine, just enough to drive her mad. Her hands flew down to grip Dan's hair, having to take very deep breaths to control herself. But just as she settled, Dan flicked his tongue across her clit, only a few times, only trying to get her to beg, but instead pulling a loud moan from her as Catherine arched off the bed, Dan's hands quickly moving to grip her thighs, forcing her back down.  
"Dan!" she whimpered, trying to buck her hips up. "Please! Ah..."  
"Say it for me" He growled against her before pushing his tongue back inside, feeling her tighten around him.  
"Please, daddy!" She whined, her hands still tugging at his hair. "Ohh... want you" Dan moaned, pulling back to look at his girl sprawled on the bed.  
"Fuck... tell me what you want" He grinned, wiping his mouth a little as he sat up, already pushing down his boxers.  
"Want you to fuck me..." she moaned, rubbing her thighs together from loss of contact. Dan quickly leaned back in, pushing two fingers into her tight, wet heat. He kissed his way back up her chest, biting and sucking at her neck.  
"Dan... please" she begged again, rocking her hips down on his fingers, feeling him stretch her open.  
"I know baby, I know..." he grinned, sitting back a little and looking over at her bedside table. "Listen... do you-" he started, but Catherine was already sitting up and pulling a condom out of her drawer, handing it to him before falling back on the bed.

Dan wasted no time in ripping it open and rolling it on over his hard length, stroking himself a few times to relieve the ache. He sat up again, lining himself up with her before pushing in slowly. Catherine let out a low groan, her head rolling back against the bed as he pushed in deeper.  
"Fuck... you feel so good" Dan almost whimpered, burying himself within her fully.  
"Fuck... daddy, please" she begged, looking up at him. Dan let out a gasp, his hips pulling back before thrusting into her sharply. Hearing the way she begged for him drove him crazy, throwing all plans of going slow out the window. He quickly fell into a fast rhythm, falling forward so he could kiss her, moaning against her lips. They had no reason to be quiet in Catherine's apartment, and it really showed with how loud she was being, crying out and begging nonsense against his skin as the thrust inside her.  
Dan was almost worried about not lasting that long when Catherine started to whimper.  
"Dan... I'm close-fuck" Starting to roll her hips back against him, making her boobs bounce with their movements.   
"Me too baby" he groaned, one hand coming up to play with one of her breasts, almost being a little too rough, but all Catherine did was moan louder, her legs wrapping around his waist tighter as he fucked her harder.  
"Gonna cum for me, daddy?" she whined, biting her lip and moving her hands to his hair again, feeling him shudder against her.  
"Yeah baby girl, fuck... so good" he growled, thrusting a few more times before stilling inside her as he came with a shout. He was about to lose himself in the feeling when he realized that she hadn't finished. He groaned softly, pulling back before thrusting back inside her, pleasant shivers running through his oversensitive body. He reached a hand down and found her clit, rubbing it in time with his thrusts as he felt her suddenly tighten around him, her entire body clamping down as she came. After a few moments, Dan pulled out, taking care of the used condom before returning to the bed and laying down beside her.  
"You okay?" he muttered, turning his head a little to look at her.  
"Yeah..." she hummed, her eyes still closed as she enjoyed the afterglow.  
"Good..." Dan sighed, feeling himself sink into the bed.  
Before the two of them fell asleep that way, Catherine reached over, grabbing her blanket at the end of the bed and threw it over the two of them, snuggling into his side before quickly falling asleep, Dan doing the same not long after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told you I could not promise there wouldn't be more sex...


	23. Catherine, meet everyone

"Hey, what's up?" Suzy hummed, answering her phone and kicking her feet up on her desk.  
"Hey Suzy" Catherine sighed happily. "Just wanted to let you know... I've finished editing my video with Mark"  
"Oh my god!" Suzy squealed, sitting up. "I need to see it! Please say I get an early screening?!"  
"Oh I don't know... would that be fair?" Catherine giggled.  
"Come on! You can't tease me with news like that and not let me see it first!" Suzy whined, getting up from her seat to wander through the grump space.  
"Okay, okay... when do you want to see it?"  
"Tonight? Now!" Suzy gasped "Whenever you're free! Come down to the space, we'll play it there! Let the guys see!"  
"I don't know about that..." Catherine frowned.  
"Why not?" Suzy pouted "Come on, you need to come meet everyone else anyway!"  
"I told Dan I didn't want to meet the rest of his friends until he was ready..." She explained "Lemme talk to him first, I'll see what he thinks"  
"Oh, I'll just ask him now" Suzy grinned, throwing herself down on the couch beside him. She pulled one of his headphones away and hummed "It's your girlfriend" she sighed dramatically "Say yes, what's she's going to ask you, say yes!"  
"Hey... what's up?" Dan blinked, taking the phone from her.  
"I finished the video" Catherine chuckled.  
"That's great!" Dan grinned, sitting up a little and pushing his laptop to the side. "So what did you want to ask me?"  
"Well... Suzy wants me to come down to you and show everyone... and meet everyone" She explained, sighing a little. Dan frowned, thinking it over for a moment. He knew she was going to meet everyone sooner or later, this seemed to be the best opportunity, and it was quite relaxed in case she felt uncomfortable... She already knew Arin and Suzy and had sadly bumped into Barry a few times when she had stayed over.  
"Well, if you want to then I'm totally fine with it" he smiled.  
"Really?" Catherine mumbled "I can meet them another time, it doesn't have to be so soon, don't let Suzy pressure you into this"  
"No, babe... she's not pressuring me at all. I want you to meet my friends, you need to meet them at some point, might as well show off you talents at the same time" He grinned.  
"Well... okay" Catherine finally agreed "I'll be round a little later"  
"Look forward to it" Dan grinned before handing the phone back to Suzy.

Catherine packed up her things and made her way to the grump space, trying to ignore just how nervous she was about meeting Dan's friends. She really needed to accept that maybe she was scared of this going fast, or things falling apart when they're just starting to get good... Dan was right, this needed to happen, and it would be okay. Since they had started taking things seriously, Dan hadn't given her any reason to worry.  
She pulled up outside the building and buzzed to be let in. She climbed the stairs as slow as possible before she made it to their office, pushing the door open.  
"Hey!" Suzy squealed, immediately pulling her into a hug. "Congratulations!"  
"What?" She giggled, just allowing her friend to pull her about for a moment before things got scary.  
"On the music video, dummy!" Suzy huffed "So proud of you for finishing this!"  
I'm super proud of myself" Catherine muttered, wrapping her arms around Suzy before she was pulled away and into Arin's arms.  
"Seriously, we all know how hard a project like that can be, and from what Mark's told us, it's going to be amazing" He assured her, passing her off to Dan.  
"Hey!" She grinned, looking up at him.  
"Hey" He smiled back, kissing her forehead. "Relax... they don't bite..." he whispered, Catherine immediately feeling a little better, knowing that Dan was looking out for her. She was led over to some of the other computers and introduced her to Ross and Kevin, adding in a little greeting to Barry.  
"Hey, it's nice to finally meet you" Kevin smiled, getting to his feet to shake her hand. "Dan's been talking about you a lot lately... it's nice to put a name to it all"  
"Really?" Catherine blushed a little, feeling Dan's hand on her shoulder.   
"Yeah, we were starting to wonder if he was lying or not" Ross smirked. "Although there's still the chance he's paying you-"  
"Shut up Ross..." Arin sighed "You really want her first impression of you to be a rude joke?" Catherine realized her nerves must have been more than a little noticeable if Arin was standing up for her like this... She took a deep breath and smiled, looking up at the man.  
"No, I'm definitely real..." She muttered, "He couldn't make up someone as awkward as me..."  
"Ah, I already like her" Ross grinned before sitting back at his computer.   
"So let's see this video then" Barry chimed in, wandering over to her. "I want to see what your editing skills are like outside of a few vlogs"  
"Oh please be gentle with me" Catherine chuckled, a little more comfortable with Barry after the few times they'd met.  
"Come on, we'll put it up on the TV" Suzy grinned, pulling her over to one of the screens mounted on the walls. She handed Suzy her USB and sat down on the couch, feeling Dan throw himself down beside her before Arin appeared on the other side.  
"What had you so embarrassed about us seeing it?" Arin smirked "Was it because you're wearing a-"  
"Ah, Dan doesn't know! Shush!" Suzy gasped, slapping her husband's arm as she sat down on the edge of the sofa.  
"Okay, geez, play it" Arin giggled, resting back and pulling Suzy to sit on his lap. The others gathered around, making Catherine feel a little panicked again as they pressed play.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh shit! Music videoooooooooooooooooo


	24. So Jealous!

As the song opened, Dan wouldn't say he was disappointed that Catherine wasn't in a strange outfit, it was just such a contrast from the outfit he'd seen her in on set. He'd heard a bit of her singing on the day, so he just took in the rest of the video for now. She was dressed in a cute outfit, just a little more dressed up than what she usually wore. A little black skater skirt, a cropped gothic tee, and some knee high boots, but as the second verse started and it cut, Dan suddenly realized why Catherine might have been a little worried about everyone seeing her like this for the first time.  
Her second outfit was a new Jessica look, it wasn't her long dress he'd seen her in before, it was a long skirt and cropped top with black sequined heels as if she needed more sparkle. Nothing about the outfit was that revealing, but the way it hugged her curves and the way she was intensely staring down the camera made him feel a little hot under the collar.  
"I prefer the dress, but damn girl you can pull off those sequins" Suzy muttered beside them.  
"But I can shake it, shake it like I'm supposed to do, 'cause I got that boom boom that all the boys chase..." Catherine sang on screen as a man in nothing but red shorts, comically large hands, and a rabbit head danced beside her. Dan was about to say something, knowing full well it was Mark under there, but Arin's bark of laughter distracted him as the song continued.  
The third verse cut to Catherine's, even more, revealing Velma costume that got a wolf whistle from Barry, causing Dan to turn sharply. He totally understood Catherine not wanting to see their immediate reactions now, he didn't want to see them either. He couldn't even enjoy Mark's change of costume into the awful scooby doo outfit he'd seen that day. He was thinking to himself that it couldn't get any worse, when it cut to her in a very classic schoolgirl uniform, her sat at a desk as she sang.  
"Yeah, my mama she told me don't worry about your size... She says, boys like a little more booty to hold at night" The shot cut to her doodling hundreds of little hearts on her notebook that said 'I *heart* Markiplier', it was then that Dan realized that Mark had been the backing chorus for the song, he wasn't actually taking any solo parts in this. He tried to calm himself down, remembering that this was her first project and this really was her on stage persona... was it really any different to his alter ego? He started to wonder how Catherine would react in the future when she saw his videos, or even him on stage... the way he interacted with fans... He realized that he'd been pretty distracted when there was a sudden gasp from Suzy, his eyes refocusing on the screen.  
"I'm bringing booty back. Go 'head and tell them skinny bitches that~" Her new outfit really outdid them all... she had on a leotard that had been printed to look like a playboy bunny suit, with a sheer skirt on over it. It was an obvious bunny girl costume, only toned down by Mark reappearing in the background with the same rabbit head as before, only now with cuffs and collar to match her. It took a moment before he realized that she was crouched on a bed littered with black and red rose petals to match her outfit.  
"Fuck... how much did you have to pay Mark to do this?" Arin muttered, nudging Catherine a little.  
"Honestly... once he saw my costumes, he kinda wanted to do it too..." Catherine whispered back, leaning a little closer to him. The video cut back to the school girl outfit for the line  
"Yeah my mama she told me, don't worry about your size" but as it played the next line  
"She says, boys like a little more booty to hold at night" it cut back to her bunny outfit, this time with Mark grabbing her ass and Catherine giving an exaggerated gasp.  
"Ooh the fans are gonna skin you..." Ross giggled under his breath.  
'Not before I skin Mark...' Dan thought to himself as the rest of the song played out, cutting between the various outfits before finally ending on Catherine and Mark sprawled out on the bed in the bunny costumes, only Mark's head missing now with lipstick kisses all over his face.

The video finished and everyone clapped, Dan forcing himself to before people started congratulating Catherine, he pushed himself off the sofa, giving her some time to enjoy people praising her work. He couldn't help but feel insanely jealous, seeing her dancing like that with Mark, reminding himself yet again that he hadn't even offered to be in one of her videos yet... Also helpfully reminding himself that maybe if he'd been a little more confident with their relationship, that maybe the video wouldn't have been so sexual between the two of them... He remembered the way Mark had been towards her that day on set before they'd really established their relationship. He couldn't really blame her for old footage... But it didn't stop him feeling pissed off with himself.  
Finally, Catherine got away, wandering over to Dan.  
"So... what did you think?" she mumbled, biting her lip a little. She could see he wasn't happy... not as happy as the others were, and she kind of knew why... it was a little obvious when she'd been editing for weeks. "I'm sorry it's kinda..."  
Seeing the way Catherine's shoulders fell snapped everything into place in Dan's head. She had worked so hard on his video, it was her first big project and something she had so much fun doing with a new friend... And here he was getting jealous over something that didn't exist...  
"No" He cut her off, pulling her into a hug. "Don't be sorry..."  
"It's just, I know it's kinda awkward seeing me... like that with some other guy" She huffed.  
"No..." Dan sighed again, shaking his head "I was just being silly... it really was an amazing video, and you two must have had so much fun making it... I'm so proud of you"  
"Really?" Catherine blinked, pulling back a little. Dan's heart tugged a little harder as he realized that she was almost in tears.  
"Yes! Baby... you're putting my videos to shame!" He grinned, pulling her close again. "Fuck... And you and Mark's voice together is awesome, you totally have to work with him again..."  
"It really was good" Suzy agreed behind the two of them. Dan turned to see his friends watching the pair.  
"We could all kinda see you seething there buddy..." Arin mumbled.  
"Yeah... I'm sorry I kinda whistled at you..." Barry blushed, rubbing his neck. Dan stared at his friends for a moment before grinning.  
"Well, why the fuck wouldn't you? she was smoking hot in that video!" Dan grinned, quickly pulling her into a kiss.  
"You're really not mad?" Catherine asked, looking up at him, a little worried he was bottling things up so he didn't make a scene.  
"Cat... listen to me" He sighed, smiling at her. "Yeah I was jealous watching it... but babe, it's nothing compared to the shit I've done in videos... you just make it look a lot more professional..."  
"And sexier..." Suzy chimed in.  
"The singing's better too..." Kevin coughed under his breath.  
"Well fuck you guys!" Dan cried dramatically before storming off, quickly giggling and returning to the group.  
"Seriously Catherine, you did an amazing job... and this is going to be huge when you upload it" Arin smiled.  
"When does it go up?" Ross asked.  
"Midday, tomorrow" Catherine smiled, looking up at her boyfriend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah I'm sorry XD I couldn't let Dan stay mad...  
> and I'm sorry Mark was such a dork...  
> and I'm sorry the description of the music video was like the entire chapter...  
> I'm just sorry...  
> The song was again All about that bass by Megan Trainor
> 
> Here's all her outfits if you were interested -http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/q583/Ssssherlock_Holmes/fghdgfh_zpsn9w7ah2a.jpg


	25. 10k

Catherine had known she was going to get a boom in views when the video went up, but her figures doubled within a few hours of posting and continued to climb as the week went on. Mark and Dan only fueling the hits. Mark put out a reaction video to it and linked to the song, telling everyone to check out his first serious song, and Dan posted on Facebook that Mark had started a war for sexiest YouTuber.  
The support she'd received from people was amazing, and despite Suzy's warnings about the comments, Catherine found herself reading them whenever she got a spare minute. The fat and slut comments rolled right off her, she had incredibly thick skin when it came to that, it was just the comments about her singing that got her down, but the thousands of likes and other comments pushed those thoughts from her head.

To celebrate, Suzy organized a night out with everyone. They invited Mark along so they could congratulate the two of them properly. Catherine didn't know who had suggested karaoke but she knew it was going to lead to a hilarious night.  
Dan had finished his work with Brian that day and headed to Catherine's apartment to get ready, some of his clothes already there from the night before.  
"I'm glad you're getting along with everyone" he sighed, brushing out his freshly washed hair.  
"Me too... I don't know why I was so nervous..." Catherine muttered, sitting back on the bed.  
"Me neither, I mean, you've seen our videos... we're all harmless" He grinned, turning to his girlfriend.  
"I just... I think I was personally scared about how this was all going to go..." Catherine explained "I mean... we had a rocky start to this, I didn't want to make a ton of new friends, only to lose them if we broke up"  
"Babe" Dan sighed, sitting down on the bed with her. "It's totally natural to be nervous... you saw how scared I was"  
"Yeah.." She sighed, sitting up and pulling him into a kiss. "You look super hot with your hair brushed..." she giggled, biting at his bottom lip.  
"Hmm... tough shit, it takes too much work to keep it looking like this" he giggled back.  
"How long have we got left before we have to meet them?" Catherine asked, running her fingers along his stubble.  
"Hm... not long enough" He sighed, leaning in to nose at her neck.  
"Hm... long enough to do something~" She teased, running her hands down his chest to his crotch.  
"Don't start something you can't finish" he growled, "I'll only make you pay for it later..."  
"Oh is that a threat?" she giggled, palming him a little.  
"That's a promise" he grinned, pulling back to look into her eyes.  
"Well then..." she muttered before pulling away "I'm gonna go get ready... don't shave, I like the scruff" She giggled, grabbing her clothes and disappearing into the bathroom, leaving Dan on the bed.

After a little while, Catherine emerged from the bathroom in a large black jumper and a pair of skeleton suspender leggings, finished off with a pair of spiked flats. Dan couldn't stop running his eyes over her legs and ass as she rummaged around in her bag. She quickly pulled her hair up into a bun and held out her hand.  
"You coming babe?" she giggled, wiggling her fingers. Dan snapped himself out of his thoughts and grabbed her hand, forcing himself to his feet.  
"You are going to drive me fucking crazy..." he growled, marching her to the door before they were late.  
They took Dan's car to the bar, meeting Barry and Kevin outside.  
"Did you guys suggest this?" Kevin sighed, looking up a Dan  
"Dude, I'm all sung out..." He groaned, shaking his head.  
"I didn't know about this until yesterday" Catherine muttered in defence as they walked in. Arin was at the bar paying for a soda when he noticed everyone.  
"Hey, guys!" He grinned, pulling Dan into a hug first "We've got a room in the back, Suz and Mark are getting warmed up"  
"I bet it was Mark" Catherine mumbled to Barry as they ordered themselves a round of drinks before following him through to a small room with couches and a large screen.  
"Fuck... I'm gonna need something stronger" Catherine groaned as she heard Mark screeching the chorus to Sweet Child of Mine.  
"Whatever you're drinking, I'm stealing some" Dan chuckled, sitting down on one of the couches.  
"Hey!" Suzy gasped, pulling Catherine into a hug. "Girl! You broke ten thousand subs!"  
"Really?!" Catherine blinked, pulling back a little.  
"Hell yeah! I just checked on your channel, you've broken the 10k mark!" She grinned, jumping a little with her.  
"Well done, babe" Dan muttered, kissing the top of her head.  
"Hey!" Mark pouted, causing everyone to turn. The song had finished and no-one had been paying attention to his singing.  
"Woo!" Catherine cheered sarcastically before walking over to give him a hug. "How are you?" she giggled.  
"I'm good" He smirked "Congrats on the subs"  
"Oh shush... it's all thanks to you" She sighed. Mark sighed, wrapping his arms around her again.  
"Don't put yourself down, if it was just for me, all you'd have would be views, people are subscribing because they want to see more of you!" He muttered before pulling back. "I really don't think you've given yourself enough credit for the project..."  
"A lot of people worked on it..." Catherine shrugged.  
"Cat! You edited the whole thing by yourself, storyboarded most of it, planned costumes..." Suzy exclaimed. "Not to mention sang the song! Amazingly by the way!"  
"Shush..." Catherine blushed, covering her face.  
"No! She's right! I really loved the cover, I've got it on my phone" Barry chuckled.  
"Ah everyone shush!" Catherine whined, grinning at everyone as she sat down on one of the couches.  
"Okay, okay..." Arin chuckled "Let's get a few drinks down and get started. Ross said he'd be here soon with Holly"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drunk singing is on the horizon
> 
> Here's Catherine's sexy outfit - http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/q583/Ssssherlock_Holmes/karaoke_zpszjqp3a7r.jpg


	26. Karaoke Night

Mark and Arin started the night off with 'Girl just wanna have fun', already bringing everyone to tears with laughter. Suzy quickly agreed with Catherine that they needed something stronger so went off to get shots. Arin didn't want to drink, he was having enough fun singing with everyone. After a few drinks, Dan decided that he didn't want to drive home at the end of the night, so joined in with the shots.  
"Where the fuck is Ross?" Kevin sighed, looking through the song selection. Suddenly ABBA started playing through the speakers.  
"Oh god," Danny groaned with a grin on his face.  
"Barry!" Kevin grinned, reaching out for his friend's hand. The older man whined, shaking his head.  
"No, don't do this to me!" He whimpered as Arin and Catherine shoved him to his feet.  
"Anybody could be that guy!" Kevin sang, handing him the other mic "The night is young and the music's high~"  
"Oh snap, Kevin!" Dan gasped, lounging back on the sofa, wrapping an arm around his girlfriend as she joined him.  
"You are the Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only seventeen" Barry grinned, shoving Kevin away from trying to dance against him.   
"Oh shit, that's a point, did anyone check his ID?" Mark giggled, taking a swig of his beer.

Towards the end of Dancing Queen, Ross joined them with Holly in tow.  
"Sorry we're late guys, Ross wanted to have a few pre-drinks before we got here..." She sighed, greeting everyone as Ross caught the last few lines of the song with Kevin.  
"Who's up next?" Suzy asked, going through the songs.  
"Ooh Catherine!" Arin grinned, pulling her from Dan's arms.  
"No" the older man whined, holding onto her arm.  
"Wanna sing with me?" She grinned, looking down at him.  
"No, you've got shit taste in music" he muttered with a grin causing a few people to gasp.  
"Oh, it's so on, fucker..." She growled, pulling away and looking through the songs.  
"What are you gonna do?" Suzy giggled beside her.  
"Dunno yet" she grinned, flicking through the selections.  
"Do a rap!" Arin called.  
"Man, white girls can't rap" she heard Ross chuckle.  
"She's Jewish too, she's got nothing going for her in the cool department" Dan added in.  
"Oh, it's so fucking on" Catherine growled, picking her song and spinning round to everyone.  
"Shit, she looks mad" Barry mumbled beside Dan.  
The baseline started and Dan immediately sat up, holding out his arms.  
"Oh baby girl, all is forgiven" He sighed before the lyrics came up on the screen.  
"Oh no..." Ross groaned, letting his head fall back, having mistaken it for Under Pressure.  
"All right stop, Collaborate and listen. Ice is back with my brand new invention" She began, grinning down at him.  
"Fuck..." Dan huffed, falling back against the couch.  
"Will it ever stop? Yo, I don't know, turn off the lights and I'll glow. To the extreme, I rock a mic like a vandal, light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle.  
" She had to get in his face as she rapped before Arin pointed something out.  
"Hey! No fair, you gotta look at the words" He giggled, everyone realizing that she hadn't turned once to check. As the song reached the chorus, she held out the mic to Arin.  
"You gonna do this with me, okay?" she said quickly, Arin jumping up to join her.  
Dan groaned, sitting back with a grin as he pulled out his phone to film a quick clip for Instagram.  
"I'm on a roll and it's time to go solo rollin' in my 5.0, with my ragtop down so my hair can blow" Arin rapped, spotting Dan's phone and leaning in towards the camera. "The girlies on standby, waving just to say, hi!"  
"Did you stop?" Catherine chimed in   
"No, I just drove by, kept on pursuing to the next stop, I busted a left and I'm heading to the next block" Arin handed over the mic and let Catherine continue.  
"That block was dead Yo, so I continued to A1A Beachfront Ave."  
It took the song way too long to the end, Catherine finally tossing the mic to Ross.  
"Your turn Crocodile Dundee" She smirked, sitting back with Dan.  
"She thinks she can start with the jokes?" Ross chuckled, getting to his feet. "Got a lot of confidence" He gave a flick through the songs and shrugged, hitting random.  
"Oh Ross... come on" Dan whined as the song came up.  
"Life is a mystery, everyone must stand alone, I hear you call my name and it feels like home..." He sighed.

The night went on like that, everyone taking it in turns singing a song as someone else went off to get a round of drinks. They had found out that they could plug their phones in and use YouTube, so Barry and Holly had been more willing to choose something. Dan had managed to turn his goes down so far, but Catherine wasn't happy with it.  
"Babe... please sing something for me" She pouted, running a hand up his leg while everyone's attention was on Suzy and Holly's attempt at 'Happy'  
"Keep stroking my thigh and I won't be able to get up there" he chuckled, pulling her into a kiss.  
"Stay sitting here and I won't be able to keep my hands off you" she whispered back.  
"Hm... now why would that make me get up?" He sighed, placing a hand on her hip.  
"Because I'll totally make it up to you when we get home" she hummed.  
"What are you two love birds talking about?" Arin grinned, leaning into the two of them.  
"Nothing!" Catherine gasped, sitting up.  
"Is it my turn?" Dan giggled, getting to his feet. Suzy passed him the mic and he headed over to plug in his phone and find the song.  
"Oh shit, he's really gonna sing?" Arin blinked "What did you offer to blow him?"  
"No!" Catherine blushed, sitting back on the couch, waiting for him to start.  
The song kicked in and Catherine's face was immediately red.  
"Ruby, Ruby where you been so long" Dan grinned, pushing his hair out of his face. Over the course of the night, it had become wild from Catherine running her hands through it, his cheeks were just the right shade of pink and he'd stripped down to just his black t-shirt, showing a little of his stomach where it had ridden up. "Ain't no one I know do it good as you, lickin' on that lickin' stick the way you do"  
"Fuck..." Catherine sighed, wanting the couch to swallow her, but at the same time, wishing no-one else was there to hear Dan, just the two of them.  
"You got the lips to make a strong man weak and a heathen pray" He leaned in as if it weren't obvious that he was singing about Catherine "Give you a tip, tt ain't just the way you speak... You know it's just the way you go down!" There were a few hoots from the guys, causing Catherine to curl up a little more in her seat, pulling the neck of her jumper over her face.  
It was her punishment for teasing him, she knew it, but this was almost cruel. Suzy finally showed mercy, leaning in and handing her some money.  
"Go get another round of shots" She smirked, patting her shoulder. Catherine was about to run out of the room, but Dan grabbed her, holding her close.  
"You got the touch that I need so much in your fingertips, I got the honey that ya love to taste on those lovely lips. So go down!" He sang, rocking his hips into her. Catherine giggled loudly, trying to pull away, his eyes meeting her as he grinned, dancing with her a little until the song finished, finally letting her go.  
"You're an ass, that was amazing" She chuckled as everyone clapped, she gave him a kiss on the cheek and quickly ran out to the bar to order a round of jägerbombs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, okay the songs mentioned...
> 
> Girls just wanna have fun - Cyndi Lauper  
> Dancing Queen - ABBA  
> Ice, Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice  
> Under Pressure - Queen/David Bowie  
> Like a Prayer - Madonna  
> Happy - Pharrell Williams  
> Go Down - ACDC


	27. Some drunk bitch

Back in the room, Arin was attempting a tenacious D song with Ross as she set down the tray, sitting down beside her boyfriend.  
"That was fucking cruel" she sighed, handing him his drink.  
"So is this..." he muttered, eyeing the glass.  
"Just drink it" she giggled "I'll get you back to my apartment..."  
"To us..." he sighed with a smile on his face, clinking her glass against his before downing it.  
Catherine did the same and placed their glasses down.  
"Ah fuck..." he sighed, letting his head fall back. "I don't think I'm up for much more tonight baby girl..."  
"You wanna head back?" she mumbled, leaning in a little.   
"I won't be able to walk if I have any more" he smirked, kissing her neck.  
"Okay, we'll go in a little bit... I don't think Kevin or Ross are gonna last much longer either..." she smiled, eyeing their friends.  
"Sing something for me" he giggled, pulling her in for a proper kiss.  
"What do you want me to sing?" She grinned, pulling back.  
"Sing Rush for me..." He pouted, blinking up at her.  
"Jeez, do you get off on me singing songs older than I am?" she chuckled, getting up.  
"You know what gets me off" he smirked, biting his lip a little.  
"Then lemme pick the song..." she chuckled, walking over to choose her song. "Last one guys... Dan's pretty out of it already" she announced, pressing play.  
"Ohh fuck" Arin chuckled, sitting back on the sofa as the song started playing.  
"Love is like a bomb baby c'mon get it on. Livin' like a lover with a radar phone" She sang, her hips swaying to the song. "Lookin' like a tramp, like a video vamp. Demolition man, can I be your girl?" Dan groaned, slouching back in the seat as he watched her. There was nothing sexier than when she san rock music, she had too much intensity when performing to do the pop stuff she covered. "So c'mon, take a bottle, shake it up. Break the bubble, break it up" She leaned back for a moment, pulling her hair out of the bun she'd had it in all night. Suzy whistled as she shook it out, her eyes finding Dan's again. "Pour some sugar on me..." Her head swinging in time with the music "Ooh I can't get enough. I'm hot, sticky sweet, from my head to my feet, yeah..." She sighed, one hand playing with the hem of her jumper, pulling it up just enough to flash her stomach before moving up to run through her own hair. "Listen, red light, yellow light, green-a-light go. Crazy little woman in a one man show. Mirror queen, mannequin, rhythm of love. Sweet dream, saccharine, loosen up" Dan groaned, sitting up a little as he felt himself getting hard. It was so strange that this turned him on, but the confidence that radiated off of her, just pure sexual energy that she put into the song to make it hers.  
He couldn't sit through the entire song, but he didn't want to leave, suddenly understanding how she felt during his song... And it was worse that she was singing and dancing like this live in front of his friends, but somehow it was different, it was directed solely at him, and everyone in the room knew it. He felt strangely possessive.   
"I got the peaches, you got the cream" She sighed, her free hand running down her again "Sweet to taste, saccharine" Suddenly the song cut out, and Dan almost heaved a sigh of relief as she turned to see what the problem was.  
"Ah fuck, the video didn't buffer properly" She pouted, unplugging her phone.  
"That was awesome!" Mark hooted from his seat beside Barry and Kevin.  
"Hell yeah," Suzy grinned. Catherine giggled as she looked Dan over, offering him a hand.  
"You wanna head back now, babe?" She hummed.  
"Yeah..." he groaned, smirking up at her. "Just gimme a minute..."  
"Grab my coat for me" she suggested, nodding to her things. Dan quickly grabbed up her stuff, holding it all in front of him as he said his goodbyes, giving everyone quick one armed hugs.  
"Tonight was so much fun, we have to do this again" Suzy grinned, hugging Catherine goodbye.  
"We do... I'll talk to you soon" She hummed, pulling away. "It was so night seeing all of you. Goodnight!"

They made their way outside and Catherine called for a taxi, leaning into her boyfriend as they waited.  
"Fuck..." he groaned, closing his eyes for a moment.  
"You okay there?" she smiled, tilting her head back to look at him.  
"I just wanna get you home" he chuckled, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her closer.  
"And do what, Mr. Avidan?" She muttered innocently, blinking up at him.  
"Fuck, I'm not making promises, I can barely focus on you right now" he giggled, leaning down to kiss the top of her head.  
"Hm, what a shame" she sighed before grinning at him.  
"I know" he smirked "And after a performance like that..."  
"I should say the same for you" she purred, wrapping an arm around his waist so she could push her hand under his shirt, her nails running down his back.  
"You wanted to die" he chuckled "I saw your face..."  
"Hm... maybe I'll just ask for a private show next time..." she hummed, dragging her nails a little harder. Dan hissed, grinning down at her as their taxi pulled up. Catherine hopped in, giving her address as they set off, just settling back into Dan's side. They were almost back to hers when Dan received a text, causing them to jump a little in the silence of the cab.  
"Who is it?" Catherine sighed, yawning a little as she watched the other cars zoom by.  
"It's Brian" Dan frowned, rubbing his eyes a little.  
"Is he okay?" Catherine blinked. She'd never met Brian, nor had she ever talked to him, but she'd heard a lot about him. Dan was silent for a moment as he read the text, his brows furrowing a little before they shot up under his bangs.  
"What?" Catherine swallowed as he cursed under his breath. He quickly brought up his Instagram to show her the caption he'd put under the video of her and Arin singing.  
'My girlfriend and some drunk bitch totally killing it on karaoke'   
Catherine held back a giggle at the words before it dawned on her.  
"Fuck... how many people have seen it?" She mumbled, Dan staring back at her blankly before scrolling down to see hundreds of comments asking who was who. Luckily most of them assumed Dan had been calling Arin his girlfriend, but this wasn't going to help with the rumors that had already been circulating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song was pour some sugar on me by Def Leppard


	28. Grown up decisions

"What do we do?" Catherine mumbled, looking up at him. This was it, he either blew this off and announced her as nothing... or confirmed to the world that she was his girlfriend... Were they even there yet? They'd been together about a month? nearly two? It was hard to tell when they spent so long worrying about commitment.  
"I don't know..." Dan huffed, letting his head fall back. "Fuck... Babe, I wanna tell everyone, I really do... but there's so much shit that comes with that..."  
"Well..." Catherine started, but Dan cut in.  
"No... babe, you will become a public figure..." he groaned "I know you're already making a name for yourself, but as soon as you're like a confirmed part of this group... it's gonna open you up to so much crap, and I really don't want to drag you into that..."  
"Dan..." Catherine sighed, placing a hand on his thigh. "It's okay" she tried to sound reassuring, but Dan was still running his hands through his own hair, panicking about the future.  
"If there's anything about you on the internet, they'll find it... they'll drag all the negative shit to the surface... shit you never wanted to think about again. People will find out everything about you and remind you constantly... and if we go public, people will want to see you, and it'll put stress on your job if you come, but it'll reflect on you if you don't..." He was rambling now, getting more and more panicked. Catherine reached out and grabbed his shirt, pulling him close.  
"Baby!" She snapped, getting his attention. He stared into her large hazel eyes and sighed, kissing her forehead. "I want the world to know I'm yours... and believe me, there's nothing that I've done that I'm not ashamed of..." That was a lie, but it was nothing horrific. Dan rested his forehead against hers and tried to speak, but Catherine cut him off, it was her turn. "I think... you need to stop worrying about your fans... just a little" she mumbled "If they are real fans... they'll respect you, and they'll be happy for you... and they'll understand that your baby is a working girl, and can't attend every con with you... that doesn't mean she can't attend any of them..." Dan sighed, shaking his head a little, but Catherine continued "They have to find out sometime... why not let it be now?... make it looks like we meant to announce it?"  
Dan opened his eyes again and stared into hers. "Before we really let something slip..."  
"Yeah..." he swallowed, a smile tugging at his lips.  
"Yeah?" Catherine giggled, taking his hands.  
"Yeah" He grinned, leaning in to kiss her properly.  
The two pulled away, grinning like morons when the taxi driver cleared his throat, making them look up. They were outside Catherine's flat, and by the looks of things, they'd been there for a little while.  
"Sorry," Catherine giggled, pulling out her purse to pay as Dan climbed out, opening the door for her.  
The two of them stumbled up to the apartment and Catherine let them in, Dan immediately collapsing on the couch.  
"So how do you want to do this?" He asked, looking up as his girlfriend shed her jumper, collapsing beside him in just her bra and leggings.  
"I don't know... you've gotta make the move" Catherine sighed, wrapping an arm around him. "We'll work it out in the morning..."  
"Okay" Dan groaned, not even bothered about falling asleep on the couch, he was too exhausted by this point.

The next morning, however, they were woken by Dan's phone ringing. Catherine sat up abruptly, clutching her head with a whine.  
"Sorry..." he groaned, fishing his phone out of his pocket. He didn't even bother looking at the caller ID before answering. "What?" he huffed, his eyes still closed. Catherine fell back against the couch, watching Dan's eyebrows twitch as he listened to the person on the other end.  
"I don't care..." he sighed, his shoulders falling a little. "No, I don't care... Catherine doesn't care... we don't care... we're releasing something this morning..." The person on the other end got a little louder and Catherine could make out Arin's voice.  
"She said she's okay with it. She wants this to go public... yeah I warned her..." Dan snapped, opening his eyes now. He was clearly too hungover to be dealing with this right now. "She's an adult Arin, I think she can deal with it... Yeah I told her that too"  
"Babe..." Catherine frowned, touching his arm a little, snapping him from his thoughts a little. He glanced over at her, smiling a little before focusing back on his phone.  
"It'll be fine, dude... remember when Suzy first came into this?... you guys got through it" Dan sighed. "I don't fucking care how long you'd been with her, it doesn't make a difference..." He was about to say something else when whatever Arin said made his mouth clamp shut. "That isn't gonna happen..." he mumbled, suddenly looking very worried "Why the fuck would you say that?"  
Catherine squeezed his thigh, trying to reassure him even though she had no idea what the argument was about.  
"Fuck it... dude, I'm a big boy, I can handle things if it goes to shit..." He snapped before hanging up and letting his head fall back against the couch again.  
"What's the matter?" Catherine muttered after a moment of tense silence.  
"Arin's worried that I'm gonna drag you into all this shit... then we're gonna break up and it's gonna fuck up the channel..." Dan groaned, screwing his eyes shut a little tighter.  
"Who does he think is gonna leave who?" Catherine asked quietly, making Dan look up.  
"What?" he frowned.  
"Does... does he think you'd leave me? Or I'd leave you?"  
Dan was quiet for a moment before he pulled her closer.  
"Listen... I'm done being a chicken shit over this relationship..." He muttered, pressing kisses into her hair. "I really want this to last... I've never met someone as down to earth as you... talented, funny..."  
"Shut up..." Catherine huffed against his chest.  
"No..." he sighed, playing with the strap of her bra. "I know we haven't been together long... but this is so fucking intense, in such a good way... and all these things keep happening that should scare me, but then I look at you... and they don't."  
Catherine sighed quietly, pulling back to look into his eyes.  
"I don't like all this serious shit..." she pouted. Dan grinned, leaning in to kiss her forehead.  
"I'll make some dick jokes after we go get coffee..."  
"Touch my boob or something, just stop being all grown up and shit..." she giggled, wrapping her arms around his neck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is all too serious for me... some funny shit needs to happen
> 
> I'm super ill atm, this is giving me something to distract me from being sick and stuff.  
> comments are love, I will reply to everyone.


	29. Too official

They both showered and got dressed, Catherine making them both coffee as they tried to ignore their hangovers.  
"Please don't let me drink like that again" he begged, fully sprawled on the couch now.  
"Oh come on, we have so much more partying to do together" Catherine chuckled, going through a large box on the floor beside him.  
"Baby, what are you looking for?" he sighed, tilting his head to look at her.  
"Something I wanna show you before we do this..." she muttered, looking through a photo album before throwing it aside.  
"Gonna show me your baby photos?" he grinned.  
"No..." Catherine frowned, digging deeper into the box. "Photos of my old band..."   
Dan sat up a little, ruffling his hair.  
"You didn't tell me you were in a band..." he mumbled.  
"I told you I started singing properly in college..." she chuckled, looking up at him.  
"So what happened?" He frowned "Why didn't you stick with it?"  
Catherine sighed, pulling out a black folder with stickers all over it.  
"Things got really shitty between me and the drummer... kinda broke up the band..." She shrugged "I got into childcare and kind of left that piece of me behind..."  
"What did you guys play?" he asked, moving from the couch to the floor.  
"Just covers... same as I do now..." Catherine hummed, opening the folder and pulling a few photos out. "But... it was different, we tried to be punk but me and the lead singer didn't have the voice for it, so we just stuck to classic rock songs..."  
"Fuck..." he gasped, recognizing her face in one of the photographs. "You look so different..." She was a lot skinnier, her curves were still there, but she had edges, her hair was black and short and stuck up at awkward angles and her makeup looked like it had been thrown on a few days before, but the look worked and she had the same intense stare.  
"Yeah..." Catherine chuckled, pulling out another picture "Man, I wish I was this skinny again..." Dan leaned over and felt his cheeks flush, the picture was of Catherine on stage in barely anything, a fishnet bra top and ripped leggings.  
"How old were you here?" he mumbled  
"19" Catherine giggled as Dan snatched the photo away, burying it under the others.  
"Okay, no more pictures like that please..." he swallowed, grinning at her. "Any of you wearing clothes?"  
"Not really" Catherine smirked, sorting through them.  
"So why are you showing me these?" Dan blinked, looking up at her.  
"Because... I wanted to show you some of the most shocking sides of me before anything came to the surface... I don't want there to be any surprises unless I'm the one dealing them out" She explained.  
"I understand" Dan nodded.  
"There also might be a few videos up somewhere of us performing..." She sighed "I know there's one... that'll probably haunt me for a while..."  
"How... dressed are you?" Dan muttered, glancing at some of the other photos.  
"Not very..." Catherine huffed, rolling her eyes. "I was the only chick! And I wasn't even the lead, I needed to get people's attention some way!"  
"No, I totally get it, people have done worse for fame" He chuckled.  
"So... that's my crazy phase" Catherine sighed happily, dropping the pictures back into the box and shutting it.  
"Not that crazy... pretty awesome actually" Dan grinned, pulling her into a kiss. "Ready to announce this?"  
"You know what you're saying?" his girlfriend frowned a little, blinking up at him.  
"Kinda... but if it's bad we'll record again until you're happy" he shrugged, pulling out his phone.  
"Wait..." Catherine said quickly. "You're doing this properly..." She jumped up, grabbing her camera bag from the kitchen table and pulling out her tripod, setting it up in front of him.

Dan pushed his hair out of his face and sighed, looking up at Catherine as she made sure he was in frame nicely.  
"Do you want me in it with you?" she asked, looking up at him over the camera.  
"Do you want to be in it?" he mumbled, frowning at her a little. Catherine shrugged a little, looking back at the small display.  
"We'll see how this looks" She sighed, glancing back up at him. "Look a little happier, you're announcing your girlfriend, not a death in the family" Dan grinned, shaking his head. "Okay, recording"  
"Hey, it's Dan from game grumps... starbomb and... ninja sex party" he chuckled a little under his breath. "Uh... I'm pretty sure you guys have picked up over the past month or so the new addition to our group... not really to the group, but definitely to my life." He took a breath, his eyes moving from the lens to Catherine behind it. "And last night I posted a video of her, my girlfriend Catherine. We've been seeing each other for a little while now nad I just wanted to get all the rumors and stuff out of the way..." Suddenly Catherine cut off the camera, shaking her head.  
"What's wrong?" he frowned, watching her remove it from the tripod.  
"This feels wrong..." she mumbled, looking back up at him. "This seems really official and stuff..."  
"Well..." Dan frowned, realizing what she meant. "How do you want to let people know?"  
"I don't know... how did you guys introduce Suzy?" Catherine asked, clicking through her old photos.  
"Well, it was kind of an accident..." Dan shrugged "This was before I was doing the shows, they kinda accidently mentioned her, then they caught her talking a few times... pretty much how it's happening between us" He explained, playing with his hair again. "Then finally we put her in a video with all of us, and I think it just rolled from there..."  
"See! And those two were like engaged, so this is too much fuss over me" Catherine sighed, putting her camera down.  
"So you just want this to play out?" He mumbled.  
"Yeah, sure... that's pretty much what's happening now" She smiled back at him.  
"So... if people ask me from now on..." Dan started, frowning again.  
"You tell them that yes..." she hummed, wrapping her arms around him. "Cat is your beautiful girlfriend, and you're not at all being held against your will" The older man giggled, burying his face in her hair.  
"And you're sure you're ready for all the crap that comes with that?" he sighed.  
"As long as I've got you, then yes, I'm happy" she grinned, pulling back to give him a peck on the lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dan's taking this all very seriously, but how serious is too serious?...
> 
> Things are going a little too smooth for one of my fanfics... so expect a few bumps ahead.
> 
> NOT THOSE KIND OF BUMPS


	30. I love you

The half term holidays ended and Catherine had to go back to work, pulling her away from Dan for most of the week. They stayed in contact through skype and texts, but Dan's awful sleep pattern stopped them from being able to have any real conversations.  
Things online seemed to be good for the most part, Game Grumps rarely replied to comments so there wasn't a lot being said. There were more people saying that Catherine was seeing Dan, though, so someone was confirming it.  
One or two people at work had approached her about her videos, complimenting her singing, but no-one was really into the whole YouTube scene to really know the people she was performing with. Things were pretty steady for once, and it made Catherine realize just how boring her life had been without Dan there. She wasn't one of those people who needed to be in a relationship, but she was just happier having that person there that she could text random rubbish to and get a reply back with a kiss on the end.  
Her goofy boyfriend had brought back a side to her she'd left behind, she was more animated, her taste in music and TV and fashion resurfaced and she was no longer as shy as she was when they had first met.

When the holidays rolled around, Catherine was almost sad about going, packing her things during a skype call with her boyfriend.  
"It's only for a week" Dan smiled, his hair a mess, pulled away from his face by his headphones.  
"Yeah..." Catherine sighed, grinning back at him. "Want me to bring you anything back?"  
"Nah... anything I want from there will be all gross after the flight" he sighed, typing away at something.  
"I'll still pick you something up" Catherine chuckled, folding a few more jumpers into her suitcase.  
"That reminds me, what time do I have to be at yours?" he asked, turning back to his webcam.  
"Seven" Catherine sighed "You really don't have to drive me to the airport..."  
"I want to see you off" He smiled, pulling out his phone to set a reminder. "Saves you money on a taxi"  
"But you're gonna be so tired..." she chuckled "Is it even safe for you to drive at that time?"  
"I'll be fine, baby girl, don't worry about me" he grinned. "I gotta go, I'll see you tomorrow morning"  
"See ya" Catherine sighed as the call rung off, leaving her in silence to finish her packing.

Dan made sure to be at her house half an hour early to help her make sure she had everything and had bought breakfast on the way to make things a little easier on her.  
"You're too sweet..." Catherine sighed, blowing at her coffee to try and cool it faster.  
"Nah... everything is in balance, I'm gonna go beat up Ross later" He smirked. Catherine snorted a little, glancing up at him.  
"You wouldn't beat up anybody..." she mumbled.  
"I could!" He snapped defensively, still with a grin on his face.  
"Okay, baby... you could" she giggled, grabbing her suitcase, but her boyfriend pulled it from her hand. "No, babe, let me take it..."  
"You can carry it when you get to Jersey," He said quickly as he walked out to the car. "Are you sure you've got everything?"  
"Yeah... laptop's in my carry on, medication... phone, charger..." she listed, sorting through her stuff. "If I forget clothes, I can always buy something when I get there... no big deal"  
"Okay," Dan smiled, shutting the boot of his car and climbing into the driver's seat.  
Dan had been clever turning up a little early, what was usually a forty minute drive quickly turned into an hour. They both jumped out, Dan taking her cases again as they made their way in for check in. It wasn't a long or far flight, so she didn't have to wait long before boarding. She handed over her luggage and got her boarding pass, just stepping back for a moment so they could talk.  
"I'll see you when you get back" Dan muttered, taking her hand.  
"I'll miss you" she sighed, looking up at him.  
"I'll miss you too" He sighed back, running a hand through her hair. They stood like that for a moment before Dan pulled her into a hug, kissing the top of her head. Catherine didin't know why she was so upset all of a sudden... she had gone way longer without seeing him before... But it was the thought that she was going to be all the way on the other side of the country, not just a drive away...  
Dan could feel her shaking a little and sighed into her hair, kissing the top of her head.  
"Hey... it's okay" he smiled, pulling back to look into her eyes.  
"Yeah..." she swallowed, glancing back up to see where she needed to go. She needed to get a move on... She quickly turned and pulled him into a proper kiss, tears running down her cheeks a little as she pulled back and muttered.  
"I love you..." 

The expression on Dan's face was the polar opposite of what she'd wanted to see. His eyebrows shot up a little as he stood in silence, just staring back down at her. The longer that silence went on, the more fear that bubbled up inside her until it finally hit her that he wasn't going to say anything back. She suddenly felt very cold, quickly grabbing her carry on that she'd placed on the floor, all the while, Dan was just staring in shock. Catherine took one last glance at him before muttering 'bye' and hurrying away. That seemed to snap Dan out of his thoughts as he stared after her.  
"Wait!" he gasped, trying to run after her as she almost ran towards the security check. But Catherine couldn't do this right now, she refused to have an argument over this in an airport. When she didn't even turn back, Dan gave up chasing her, watching her disappear behind a group of people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry... I'll fix it...  
> in time! mwahahaha...  
> nah I'll fix it quickly


	31. Fix this

The drive back from the airport gave Dan time to think, sadly that time was spent hating himself more and more. Why had he frozen when she said that? Why hadn't he said anything? That was the perfect fucking moment for her to say it and he didn't say a word back to her...  
What made the drive worse was the fact that his car still smelled like her perfume and her coffee that was still in the cup holder.  
He pulled up outside his apartment and just sat in the drive, staring out the window. He didn't realize how long he'd been sat there until Barry came outside, tapping on the window. Dan rolled it down but didn't turn to look at him.  
"What's up buddy?" he smiled, tilting his head a little. "Missing your girl already?"  
"Am I blocking your car?" was all he mumbled, still staring out the window.  
"Uh... yeah, but I'm not bothered about that" Barry frowned, leaning in a little. "What's the matter?"  
Dan let out a loud groan, finally letting his head fall forward and hit the steering wheel. Barry opened the passenger door and let himself in, sitting beside his friend.  
"What's wrong?" he asked again, placing a hand on Dan's back.  
"I fucked up everything..." Dan whined, his hair hiding his face from Barry, but he could hear a sob bubbling up in his throat.  
"What did you do?" the younger man muttered, leaning in a little.  
"She told me she loved me and I just stood there like an asshole" Dan swallowed, screwing his eyes shut as he felt them start to sting. Barry sighed, sitting back in his seat, but his hand stayed on his friend's back.  
"So why exactly are you upset?" he asked after a moment, causing Dan to sit up a little.  
"What?" he coughed, wiping his eyes.  
"Are you upset because she's mad at you?... or are you upset because you didn't say it back?" Bary sighed, looking into his friend's eyes.  
Dan thought it over for a moment, running his hands through his hair.  
"Dude... I just-"   
"No," Barry said quickly "It's one or the other Dan... if you could go back, would you have said it back to her?" Barry wasn't usually this serious with him, he didn't even know if his friend had been in a relationship this serious. Was this relationship even that serious? If it wasn't, then why was he so upset. When Dan didn't answer him, Barry just sighed, getting out of the car.  
"You're blocking my car, I gotta get to work..." He muttered, pushing his hands into his pockets.

Catherine spent most of the flight with her headphones in, refusing to cry until she was on her own. She just needed to get it out, then she'd be able to wear a convincing mask for the rest of the holidays with her family... After all this crap, wanting to announce her to the world as his girlfriend, introducing her to his friend... making such a big deal out of her, and he couldn't say that he loved her back?... She pulled her hoodie tighter around her as she stared out of the window at the clouds below. She didn't know what would be waiting for her when she got home to LA, where things would be... She couldn't deal with this all over again, being with someone who didn't feel the same way back...  
It was a long five hours on the plane, but luckily the checks went smoothly and she wasn't in the taxi long before she was with her family, a few of her cousins there to greet her when she arrived. It was easy to slip back into her old self.

Dan had decided not to go in, he knew it was a stupid decision, he still had work to do with Arin, but he couldn't bring himself to be around everyone... they'd only ask him about her...  
Barry had left him without a word after their conversation and he'd just locked himself in his room to hate himself until he had to move again.  
Sadly, that didn't last long. He heard someone let themselves into the flat, slamming the door as they came in. It wasn't Barry... but he knew who he would give his keys to.  
"Dan, get the fuck up..." he heard Arin sigh from the other side of his door. When there was no reply, he tried the door handle. "Barry told me. Get up"  
Dan dragged himself out of bed, unlocking his door but not bothering to open it as he went to sit back down on his bed. Arin let himself in and stood in the doorway, he didn't look angry, just disappointed, which actually made Dan feel worse.  
After a few moments in silence, the younger man made his way over and sat on the bed.  
"What the fuck, man?" he sighed, just getting it out quickly. Dan shook his head, pushing his bangs out of his eyes.  
"I don't know..." he muttered.  
"What do you mean you don't know?" Arin huffed.  
"I don't know Arin!" he whined, "I don't know why I keep fucking this up... I don't know why I just stood there... I don't know anything..."  
"You're an idiot..." he friend sighed  
"I know..." Dan swallowed, watching as Arin leaned back against the footboard of the bed.  
"Barry told me about the chat you guys had... what you said..." He explained, "What you didn't say..."  
"And I still don't know what to say!" Dan snapped, looking down at his feet.  
"Then you're an even bigger idiot..." Arin laughed bitterly. "Because that girl is the best thing that's happened to you for a long time..."  
"I know..." Dan mumbled.  
"Do you?" Arin snapped, watching his friend flinch a little. "What are you so afraid of, man?"  
"I don't know..." The older man whined, screwing his eyes shut again.   
"That girl really does love you..." Arin mumbled, ruffling his own hair.  
"I know..." Dan swallowed, just listening to his friend now.  
"From the day we met her, I could see that... The way she looks at you, hangs on what you say..." The younger man sighed "Putting up with all your indecisive shit along the way... waiting until you were finally ready to sack up and be her boyfriend... she was fucking willing to be thrown into a spotlight as long as it meant being part of your life..."  
Dan nodded, staring down at the floor again. The more Arin spoke, the more it confirmed it in his head that he was upset for not saying it back... if he could go back he would say it to her... he would shout it to the world...  
"What do I do Arin?..." he whimpered, turning to his friend.  
"I did this with Suzy... a very long time ago..." he sighed, looking down at his own hands. "We broke up over some stupid shit... and I wrote to her every fucking day, I told her how much she meant to me, how much I loved her... how much I didn't want to be without her... every damn day man until she took me back... because if she really loves you, she will..." Dan nodded, wiping furiously at his eyes.  
"But she won't do this again..." Arin mumbled, "So you better get this sorted out in your head what you're going to do..." Dan nodded, running his hands through his hair a final time.  
"Thank you..." he muttered, looking up at Arin.  
"Just do the right thing man... sort things out between you two and get her back..." He sighed, getting to his feet. "And I expect to see you at work tomorrow..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooh
> 
> remember, comments are love. I'd really like some atm, I'm stuck in bed feeling sick :(


	32. I love you too

Dan did what Arin had told him. He messaged her every day, multiple times a day, telling her that he was sorry, that he was an idiot, that he wanted her back with him, that he cared about her so much. Never once using the words 'I love you'. He wanted to say those words to her face, to be the first thing he said to her when she came back.   
And in all that time, he never got a reply. He didn't know how she was feeling, he didn't know if she was mad at him, if she still wanted to be with him...  
There weren't even updates on her YouTube, just a video the day she left saying that she was in New Jersey and that she'd be gone for a week for family things. At least, he knew she got there safely... A week had never felt so long, but it finally rolled around to the day she was coming home. Dan still had the details of when her flight was supposed to come in and planned on meeting her there.

Catherine had seen every message, the first few making her angry... but as they continued to come in, it made her think that he was actually trying. And some part of her felt bad for dropping that on him so suddenly, even if it had felt like the right time...  
She had spent the week enjoying her time with her family, talking to her cousins about her music, telling her mother about her real job... She did go shopping for gifts and found herself thinking about Dan as she visited a few of the thrift stores. There was a Rush shirt just on the right side of worn, with a few moth holes here, and a few things for the New York Giants that she'd found a few days before. She had to stop herself buying him things after that, reminding herself that things weren't completely fixed just yet...  
The flight was easy enough, it was pretty early, meaning that she didn't get any sleep the night before, Catherine found herself being shaken awake by the turbulence of landing. She gathered her things and went through the usual hassle of checks and baggage collection before she shuffled out to call for a taxi. She figured she must have been out of it, and just happy to be home when she saw Dan waiting for her, but as he approached, all those feelings she'd forgotten from last week came rushing back, her vision blurring through tears as he wrapped his arms around her. They both stood there for a moment, Catherine sobbing quietly into his chest before he whispered into her hair.  
"I love you..."   
Catherine dropped her bags, wrapping her arms around him in return, hiccuping a little as she tried to stop crying.  
"I love you too" she coughed, pulling back just far enough to look into his eyes.  
"I'm such a fucking loser for not saying it before..." he huffed, kissing her forehead.  
"Yeah, you are a fucking loser" She giggled, gripping the back of his coat. "You're my fucking loser..."  
"I'll happily be your loser..." he sighed, moving his arms under hers so he could lift her up, holding her closer. "Let's get you home..."

Dan carried her bags out, still managing to hold her hand on the way to his car. They were about to both climb in when someone appeared beside Dan. Catherine threw her bag into the footwell before walking around to see who they were.  
"I just wanted to say that I'm a huge fan!" The young woman gasped, clutching something to her chest.  
"That's awesome" Dan smiled, pushing his hands into his pockets. "Sorry, I didn't catch your name"  
"Oh, Sheryl... " She beamed, swaying a little. "I uh... jeez, I just wanted to come over and say hi. I didn't expect to see you here. Are you doing something for NSP?"  
Catherine hung back a little, not really wanting to interrupt while things were still delicate with Dan...  
"Actually, I'm out here meeting someone, just driving them home" he smiled, turning to his girlfriend. "What are you doing over there?" he chuckled, holding out his hand for her. Catherine wandered over, taking it and standing close to his side.  
"Oh..." the girl blinked, her face falling a little. "So is she like a friend of Suzy's or something? I've seen her on her channel a few times..."  
"She's my girlfriend" Dan hummed, wrapping his arm around Catherine's shoulders.  
"Oh..." The girl swallowed, forcing a smile. "That's awesome!"  
"So listen, I don't want to sound like a downer or anything, but I wanna get her home, it's been a long trip. Do you want to grab a picture?" Dan shrugged a little, looking a little guilty as he tried to end the conversation, mainly for Catherine's sake.  
"Oh, sure!" Sheryl gasped, pulling out her phone. "You don't mind taking it for us, do you?" She immediately thrust it at Catherine, her eyes never leaving Dan.  
"Sure" Catherine smiled, the fake and not at all tired smile she used for work when dealing with unpleasant parents... She stepped back as the girl posed for the picture, almost tempted to crop half of her out of it, but there was the risk of wasting more of their time with her... She snapped the picture and handed it back to the fan, returning to Dan's side.  
"Listen, it was really cool meeting you" Dan grinned, running a hand through his hair. "I'm super sorry I couldn't chat longer..."  
"It's fine!" She grinned "Thank you so much! Bye!"  
She didn't really leave, just hovered while Dan and Catherine climbed into the car. They waited until they were out of the parking lot before Dan spoke.  
"Go on..." he mumbled, not taking his eyes off the road.  
"What?" Catherine blinked, turning in her seat to look at him.  
"I know that made you uncomfortable... just say it" He sighed, glancing at her. He wasn't annoyed at her, not at all... In fact, he was a little annoyed at the girl's attitude too.  
"I mean... a thank you or something would've been cool..." Catherine shrugged, turning to look out of the passenger window.  
"They're not all like that" He sighed, reaching over to take her hand as he stopped at a red light.  
"I know..." she huffed, turning back to him to smile. "Thank you..."  
"For what?" he blinked.  
"For telling her the truth..." She smiled, leaning in to kiss his cheek.  
"Well... I think I'm done with just telling people you're my friend..." He smirked "I'd have to start holding Arin's hand and carrying his bags to keep up the act"  
"Don't" Catherine chuckled "He'd probably go with it"  
"What do you mean probably?" Dan giggled, shaking his head "The man makes a scene whenever our hands bump in public"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aww I fixed it!
> 
> (There are darker clouds on the horizon... I didn't want this to be a big problem)


	33. Planning

Dan had teared up a little over the gifts, refusing to take the Rush shirt off until Arin threatened to burn it off him during an episode.  
Catherine had started spending her afternoons in the studio, listening in on their recordings sometimes, grabbing them food during breaks... Anything that helped the others out.  
"You know, we could always use a runner here" Barry smiled as Catherine handed him his coffee.  
"Would we be able to afford that?" Kevin said quickly, pulling off his headphones. The two of them looked over at Suzy who was currently too busy to bother with their questions right now. Catherine just giggled, shaking her head as she made her way over to look into the recording room. Their timer was almost up for that episode and Dan hadn't had a break in a while, she was going to turn around and wait for them to come out, but Dan glanced up, gesturing for her to come in quickly. She opened the door and silently shuffled in, placing their drinks on the table.  
"Oh fuck!" Arin screamed, almost throwing his controller, quickly turning to Catherine. "Thanks, man..." Dan sat up a little, causing everyone to pause for a moment.  
"Uh, Ross... I mean, it's Ross..." Arin said quickly  
"Yeah. Get the fuck out of here Ross!" Dan giggled, pulling Catherine to sit on the sofa.  
"What have you got to say for yourself, mister?!" Arin snapped, grinning at her. Catherine was a little lost until Dan made a hand gesture to talk.  
"G'day?..." She giggled, immediately hiding her face in her hands.  
"Next time on Game Grumps!" Danny cheered as Arin shut off the recording.  
"Ah fuck, that's gonna get some people raving" The younger man giggled, grabbing his soda Catherine had got him.  
"Yeah, but it was worth it" Dan chuckled, pulling Catherine closer.  
"There's food outside, I stopped by Panera after work" Catherine smiled, kissing Dan's cheek, the older man throwing his arms up in the air.  
"I fucking love this woman!" He cried, jumping to his feet and disappearing into the other room.  
"So you two are getting along well" Arin grinned, making sure everything was switched off.  
"Yeah" Catherine grinned back. "I... I dunno what happened when I was away, but all that fear that was holding him back has just gone... he tries to show me off all the time"  
"It's cute, I'm happy he sorted things out in his own head..." Arin hummed, getting to his feet. "Come on, before that lanky piece of shit eats everything..."

Later that afternoon, when everyone was full of soup and sandwiches, Arin stood up, clapping his hands together.  
"Okay... so we've finally caught up with everything. The recordings for Starbomb are complete, animations on our part are finished, NSP, are things going well?" He asked, looking at Dan.  
"Yep, until January..." He smiled, wrapping an arm around Catherine's shoulders.  
"Cool. So we're finally back to our usual schedule... Now I've got some guest shit going on, but those will only be a few hours each"  
"Are we still doing something with Cat?" Ross chipped in, listening for once. Catherine sat up a little, glancing at the Australian.  
"What with me?" She asked, looking back at Arin.  
"Ah... Dan was meant to ask you about that" he sighed, shaking his head. "Basically, we saw the videos you did with Suz, they were pretty good. You can keep and good conversation going over gameplay and that's exactly what we need. There's nothing worse than a guest that can only do one or the other..."  
"It's not so bad if they can talk, we can play... But it's when they're silent" Dan groaned.  
"Yeah... so, we were wondering if you'd like to do a grumpcade with us?" Arin asked, turning back to her. Catherine thought for a moment, unsure of what to say. You'd never seen yourself as the type to do lets plays, but it had been so fun playing with Suzy that you had to agree to it.  
"Yeah, fuck it. I'd love to" she grinned, earning a cheer from everyone.  
"Awesome! I'll sort out a date with you. We'll do it on a weekend so you've got a few hours and we're not keeping you up until stupid o'clock" Arin smiled.  
"And even if we do, you can just crash at mine" Dan grinned, kissing her forehead.  
"We'll go easy on you" Barry chuckled, leaning in to tap her leg. "You can pick the game"  
"No!" Dan gasped, turning to him with a grin. "Dude, you're fucked!"  
"Oh-okay" Barry grinned, sitting back a little. "Uh... pick out a few... so it's not too one-sided"  
"Who am I playing with?" Catherine asked, turning around again.  
"Uh, we were thinking Barry or me" Arin smiled "Not really a challenge if we put you up against your boyfriend"  
"That sounds okay" Catherine grinned, feeling Dan fit his fingers between hers as they listened to Arin's plans for the near future.

After the meeting, everyone started to filter out, Dan grabbing his things and leading Catherine out to his car. He threw everything onto the backseat and climbed in, waiting for Catherine to join him. The ride back was almost a little too quiet, and Dan was going to comment on it, but Catherine then spoke up.  
"I did a lot of thinking when I was away" she hummed, looking out the window.  
"yeah?" he mumbled, keeping quiet to she could talk.  
"Yeah... and I uh..." she huffed, sitting back to look at her hands. "I wrote a song..."  
"Babe, that's great" he grinned, glancing over at her. Catherine sighed, smiling back at him.  
"Yeah, it is..." she muttered "I kinda wrote it after watching some of your stuff... thinking about a music video or something" She was trying to shrug it off as nothing, but to Dan, this meant to world.  
"Baby girl, anything you've got, I'd love to hear" he grinned.  
"Okay..." Catherine nodded, feeling a little nervous. She hadn't actually sang her new song in front of anyone yet... just alone to herself at her mum's place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a nice little filler episode, something cool is coming up! A little preview for the future!!!
> 
> Seriously, the song coming up is gonna come back (kinda at the end??? if this has an end???)


	34. Too weird?

They pulled up to the apartment and Catherine hopped out, helping Dan with his things as they went inside. Catherine hadn't really unpacked from her trip, she still had bags of gifts sitting around, her clothes still crammed in her suitcase. She was almost tempted to just ask Dan to take her to bed, but she knew he wouldn't drop this so easily...  
He grabbed the two of them a soda from the fridge before sitting down on the couch to wait for her.  
"Have you written music for it? Or just the lyrics?" he grinned, almost fidgeting with excitement.  
"Uh... the music came first actually" she mumbled, shrugging out of her cardigan. "I was uh... still kind of upset with you, so I started playing with my dad's guitar to cheer myself up..."  
"Babe" he frowned a little, pulling her into a hug. "I'm sorry... but I guess good came out of it!"  
"Yeah," she grinned, running her fingers through his hair. "It's not finished yet... needs some polishing..."  
"I still wanna hear it" he hummed, kissing her cheek. 

Catherine shook her head as she got to her feet to go and get her guitar, taking her time as she opened her closet and took it out of its case. Finally, she shuffled back into the living room, holding it close to her.  
"Okay... do you want to hear it first? Or do you want to hear the story behind it?" She mumbled, sitting down on the floor in front of him. Dan beamed, resting his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.  
"Song first" He chuckled, biting his lip a little too quiet himself.  
Catherine took a deep breath, smiling up at him before strumming a few chords, trying to remember what she'd written for it.  
"I was walking along, singing a song... When a movement caught my eye" She sang, staring down at her hands. "There he stood, looking good... The boy who fell from the sky."  
Dan leaned in a little, unable to hide the grin on his face. "Excuse me miss, I heard him say... He wasn’t at all shy" she smirked, glancing up at him. The look in his face gave her confidence to continue. "Can you show me a space girl’s room... ‘cos I’m just passing by. I stopped and stared, he looked real good, he was easy on the eye... So yes I said, come with me... I was feeling kinda high." Dan giggled a little, tilting his head as Catherine played a little louder. "So he came home, up to my room... I hoped that he might try, a move or two... just something new... To help the time pass by." She leaned back a little, grinning at him now without looking at her hands. "He took me once, he took me twice... I felt like I could die, and then he made his apologies and he flew back to the sky..." Her playing turned a little softer now, her head dropping back to her guitar. "And now I’m here, all alone... I feel the tears come to my eye  
... No one believes I really met, the boy who fell from the sky..."   
As soon as Catherine finished playing, Dan started to clap, grinning like an idiot at her as she put her guitar down and sat on the couch.  
"That was amazing!" he gasped, pulling her into a hug. "Baby!"  
"You really liked it?" Catherine giggled, wrapping her arms around him in return.  
"Cat, it was amazing!" He sighed, pulling back a little. "You wrote that all by yourself?"  
"Yeah..." she mumbled, smiling up at him.  
"You need to record that now. Like, right now..." He said, sitting up a little straighter.  
"When I have everything finished, worked out and stuff..." She hummed, leaning into his chest. Dan chuckled, running fingers through her hair before asking.  
"So it's about me?" he mumbled.  
"Hm... More Danny Sexbang..." she smirked.  
"Okay... wanna gimme the story now?" he muttered.  
"Well..." Catherine thought "It's pretty self-explanatory... but... when I was listening to your stuff, and thinking about your whole stage persona, and how you tell me how different I am on stage..." she explained, rambling a little. "I guess I kinda came up with my own character... Just a little space girl that Danny meets on his sexcapades" Dan chuckled, pulling her closer. "Was that too silly?" she giggled, looking up at him.  
"I sing about boners and unicorns..." he sighed, grinning at her. "I don't think you could ever be too silly for me"  
"So you're happy with your space girl?" Catherine hummed, playing with his hair.  
"Yes!" He huffed, kissing the top of her head again.

After a long day, they spent the evening on the couch, Dan still catching Catherine up on the past few years of YouTube. She still had a lot to learn about who was big, who they might encounter if they went to conventions together, that topic bringing up a few questions.  
"Have you thought about doing anything?" he mumbled, flicking through a playlist of Good Mythical Morning. "We don't have anything coming up just yet, but it would be really cool to have you there..."  
"Well..." Catherine sighed, ruffling her hair. "I mean, I'd like to see what it's like... I've never been to a convention before... But I think I'll just go as a fan for a bit, see how things run..."  
"That's cool, best way to start" Dan nodded, placing the controller on his stomach as he kissed the top of her head. "Hopefully, it doesn't fuck up work..."  
"Yeah, it'll be fine..." Catherine huffed, rubbing her eyes before sitting up. "Come on mister... it's time for bed"   
"Hm... you go, I'm gonna sit up for a little bit..." he frowned, not meeting her eyes.  
"What's up?" She pouted, reaching out her hand. Dan groaned, letting his head fall back a little.  
"It's nothing... it's just when I eat late, especially pizza or something... I kinda get bad dreams"  
"I'll keep you safe" Catherine smiled softly, tilting her head a little. Dan shook his head.  
"It's pretty bad when it happens, I don't want to freak you out if you've got work in the morning..." He explained.  
"You don't have to come if you don't want to..." she mumbled, sitting back down on the couch for a moment, taking his hand. "But don't do this for my sake..."  
"Okay..." Dan nodded, squeezing her hand a little before she wandered off to bed.  
He sat up for a while longer just thinking about what she said, he hadn't had an episode for quite a while... But he still didn't want to risk it happening with Catherine. The last thing he needed was to scare her off with one of his problems that he could've really avoided... They hadn't been doing anything all evening, he could've ordered food earlier... something lighter... But he finally decided that to go and lay down with her...

Dan tiptoed into the room, not wanting to wake her up if she was already sleeping, quickly getting undressed and slipping into bed beside her. Just when he thought he'd managed not to wake her, her arms wrapped around his middle.  
"Hey..." she muttered, clearly half asleep.   
"Hey... Sorry baby girl, go back to sleep" he hummed, stroking her arm. "Didn't mean to wake you..."  
"It's okay" she sighed, squeezing him a little. "What about your nightmares?"  
"If I sleep on my side, I think I'll be okay..." He frowned, kissing her forehead. Catherine went quiet a little, Dan assuming she must have fallen asleep, but then she shifted, pushing him away a little.  
"Turn around... face the other way," she said simply, still pushing him a little. Dan did as he was told, rolling over so his back was to her as she wrapped her arms around his middle again, spooning up against him. "There" she sighed happily, burying her face in his hair as she drifted off, quietly muttering a 'love you' before she started to snore softly. Dan smiled, feeling his heart almost swelling at the gesture before letting himself drift off to sleep too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't actually write the song (I actually can't write lyrics...) I found them on a free lyrics site.  
> The song is called The boy who fell from the sky and the lyrics are by Carrie Couture so...
> 
> Still really sick :( I think people seem to be liking this so far... Never written something this long before! Holy shit...


	35. TMI

Dan woke with a start, his eyes opening to nothingness, at first, he put it down to it still being dark out, but as he reached out to find his phone a cold wave of panic washed over him. His muscles were completely seized, unable to move. Dan tried to take a breath, forcing himself to remain calm as he remembered where he was, he could feel Catherine's arms around him, around his middle, grounding him to the bed. As he relaxed, rationalizing that he was in his girlfriend's bed, feeling her behind him, his eyes grew accustomed to the dark. He blinked for a moment, seeing the outline of something, his eyes straining now to identify it. All of a sudden it was as if someone had switched on a light. The room was still dark but he could clearly see Catherine laying on her stomach beside him, the arms around his middle suddenly tightening into a sickening squeeze. He couldn't move, he couldn't breathe to scream out for help as the cold arms pulled him closer and closer, a terrifying voice suddenly snarling in his ear.  
"Just came to check on you, Dan..."

Catherine almost hit the ceiling as she heard Dan scream. She sat up suddenly, looking around in a panic, thinking he was being attacked, only to find him curled on his side, still screaming like something was hurting him.  
"Dan" She hushed, pushing his hair out of his face as she tried to wake him, her other hand moving to his shoulder to shake him gently. "It's okay baby, I'm here, I'm here, you're safe..." But his body was stiff, every part of him fighting whatever was in his head. "Baby, you're safe... come back to me, it's okay, I've got you" She pushed her hands under his arms, pulling him to her chest as she smoothed over his hair, muttering to him.   
His screams died down to whimpers, his head starting to thrash a little, so Catherine just went with it, letting him thrash but making sure he wouldn't hurt himself.  
"Baby, wake up... it's okay, it's just a dream... you're safe... I've got you"  
Then finally, as quickly as it had happened, Dan's body relaxed and the noise stopped, leaving him just laying in her lap panting. His head tilted up a little to look at her face, tears streaming down his cheeks.  
"Hey..." she shushed, wiping them away "It's okay... it's okay, I've got you"  
Dan just choked out a sob as he wrapped his arms around her legs, holding her as close at he could while he got it all of out his system. "You're safe now..."

After their terrible night, neither of them were ready for the day, but Catherine had a job to go to and Dan had work to do with Brian, luckily he didn't have to be in until later.  
"Are you gonna be okay?" Catherine mumbled over her cup of coffee.  
"Yeah," Dan yawned, rubbing his eyes. "I told you, I'm okay afterwards... just really shit when it happens..."  
"Yeah" Catherine yawned back, checking the time.  
"I'm really sorry about last night..." Her boyfriend sighed, resting his head in his hands on the counter.  
"Shush" She snapped, grabbing her bag. "No sorries, if you can, take a nap. I'll call you during my lunch break" She grabbed her coat, pulling him into a kiss. "Love you, babe, see you tonight"  
"Love you too" he smiled, tasting her coffee on his lips as she left, leaving him in her apartment on his own. It wasn't the first time, but it was rare that he was left while Catherine went off to work. He'd been given a set of spare keys when she'd gone away, so he could water her plants and Catherine had never asked for them back.  
In the end, he decided to take her advice and take a nap, falling asleep to some of her covers on YouTube. His alarm woke him a few hours later, but he didn't need to get up straight away, Catherine lived closer to the studio than he did so he just refocused on his laptop, seeing that the last video that had played was her new tag video. He was never a fan of those kind of videos, but it was his girlfriend so he was curious enough to press play.  
"Hey guys, it's SongCat... uh, I was asked to do the TMI tag, and there's just so many questions!" she giggled, bringing a smile to Dan's face. "So I'm gonna do half now, half later... So let's start. Question one, what are you wearing?" She chuckled, looking down at herself. He knew there was something off about the video when she looked back up. "Not an awful lot... I'm still in bed, being a lazy butt today" She was indeed still in bed, her hair in a messy bun, no makeup, it looked like she was only in a vest top, but she was still gorgeous. "Question two... Ever been in love?" She bit her lip a little, glancing to the side. To anyone else watching the video, it would've just looked like she was thinking, but Dan realized that she must have filmed this while he was asleep next to her, the way her voice lowered a little. "Yes... a few times, I think..." she explained "But as of right now? Yes. I'm madly in love" Dan felt his heart tug a little, still beaming at the video. "Question three... Ever had a terrible breakup? Boy..." Her smile fell a little, looking directly into the camera "Yes... two... enough for a lifetime... First was when I was twenty-one, the other when I was twenty-three... and I don't know how I feel about going into details, I might do a video some day..." She quickly shook off the bad mood, continuing with her video. " Four, How tall are you? I am very short... I am about five three? Question five, how much do you weigh? About 150?... little on the heavy side, but I think I wear it well..." Dan watched as she went through a few more questions like favourite bands, songs... other random things about her until finally "Fifteen... What quality you look for in a partner?..." She glanced to the side again, giving a sweet smile. "Someone who's sweet... funny... strong. I don't mean physically strong, I don't care about that... I mean someone who's strong enough to protect me, be there for me... Someone I can travel the world with and make as many people feel weird as possible..." She trailed off for a moment, looking to her side again. Suddenly she jumped, looking back at the camera. "Well, there you guys go... first half of the TMI tag..." She grinned, ruffling her own hair. "I'm gonna go, I need to get ready for work... but I'll see you guys next time. Bye!"  
Dan sighed, to think that she was sat so close to him while she said such sweet things about him made his heart ache in a good way, he wanted to tell the world about her, but he wanted to keep her all to himself at the same time. He decided he wanted to drop a subtle hint on social media before work so he moved to her room and sat on her bed, framing the shot so he caught her dresser and fairy lights in the background, the same dresser and lights that featured in most of her DIY videos. He quickly snapped a picture, pulling an ugly, tired face, captioning it with something about not wanting to go to work before setting off to see Brian.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Dan...  
> I dated someone with sleep paralysis once... don't know what it's like personally...


	36. Sleepy

"Want to explain that photo before I freak out?" Catherine said, almost too quickly to sound casual as Dan sat back in his chair, Brian just pottering around behind him.  
He'd been at work a few hours before Catherine called, during her lunch break as promised.  
"Uh..." Dan smiled, trying to sound oblivious. "What one baby girl?"  
"The on in my room Daniel!" Catherine half shouted, quietening herself down. "Don't play dumb with me, mister!"  
"Oh that one" He grinned, glancing over at his friend. He gestured to the laptop, trying to get him to bring up their official page. He hadn't checked the comments yet, but he could guess what some of them were.  
"Yes, that one!" Catherine snapped "Dan, what happened to doing this casually?!"  
"You want me to take it down?" he frowned as he leaned over, bringing it up himself. Brian took one look at the picture before shaking his head and wandering off.  
"No..." Catherine sighed "You don't have to take it down..."  
Dan skimmed the comments, at first, they all seemed pretty standard for NSP, but he started noticing 'that looks like CatSong's apartment' 'OMG is that Cat's room!?!!1" Dan grinned as the rumors started to spread, people posting up screenshots of her videos to compare.  
"Yeah, I think they've worked it out..." he chuckled, turning away from the laptop. "Just like how I worked out you've been filming while I'm asleep..." Catherine went quiet for a moment before asking.  
"You don't know that..."  
"Oh, but I do" he grinned, rocking back in his chair. "You looked very cute with your bed hair..."  
"Okay, so I filmed a little bit while you were there... I had to film that video three times because of your snoring!" She snapped, but he could hear the smile in her voice.  
"Do you know how good that video looks with my photo?" he grinned, spinning in the office chair a little. Catherine was quiet for a moment before gasping.  
"When does that video go up?"   
"What one?" he blinked, wondering where she was going with this.  
"The one you did yesterday! The one I talked in!" She muttered.  
"Oh..." Dan blinked "I don't know... why?"  
"Just... crap, with all this stuff going out..." She groaned, screwing her eyes shut.  
"It's fine, baby girl... it's okay" he chuckled, hearing her panic. "No-one seems to be reacting badly... it's all good"  
"Yeah because we haven't confirmed it!" She whined, "Ohh your fans are gonna kill me..."  
"Did Mark's fans kill you?" he hummed, leaning back in his seat now. Catherine went quiet again before sighing loudly.  
"No..." She mumbled.  
"No... And Mark's fans are way harsher than mine, I can assure you..." He smiled as Brian came back into the room, tapping his watch. "Baby girl, I gotta go... do you want me to come and meet you after work?"  
"Uh... if you want to? I honestly just want to get some sleep..." She sighed.  
"Yeah..." Dan nodded "Okay, well I'll leave you for tonight, let you get a proper night's sleep..."  
"Okay, babe. I'll see you when I see you" Catherine sighed "Love you..."  
"Love you too" He hummed before hanging up.  
"What was your girlfriend panicking about?" Brian sighed, sitting down at the desk with him.  
"I took a selfie in her room and people noticed" he giggled, resting his chin in his hand.   
"When is she filming with you guys?" The older man mumbled, looking over the recording they'd done that day.  
"Uh... soon, I think... Arin's gonna agree on a date with her" Dan sighed, rubbing his eyes for a moment.  
"What was that about a decent night's sleep? Or should I not ask?" he winced before grinning at his friend.  
"Nah, nothing like that... I had a nightmare last night, pretty bad one... kept her up all night worrying about me" he frowned.  
"Damn... is everything okay though?" Brian asked, tilting his head a little to see his face properly.   
"Yeah man, I'm fine... she just didn't get a lot of sleep last night... and you know, being a teacher and all, that's gotta take it out of you..." He shook his head a little. "I might just leave it until the weekend before I bug her again.  
"Sounds like a plan..." Brian nodded before they returned to their work.

On her way home, Catherine stopped off to grab something for dinner, she wasn't in the mood to cook, she just wanted to eat something and fall into bed. She found herself at Panera ordering her usual and suddenly missing Dan. While she was waiting, she pulled out her phone, calling her boyfriend.  
"Hey, what's up?" Dan hummed as he answered.  
"Hey babe... just missing you, I was picking up something to eat..." She sighed, realizing that she really didn't have a reason to call him, she was just bored, tired and lonely.  
"Aw... everything okay?" He mumbled on the other end.  
"Yeah..." She blinked as her order was ready, grabbing it and moving back to her car.  
"Listen, Arin was talking to me, he wanted to know if you wanted to film your bit with us this weekend? He wants to get it out of the way, and what with my picture and all these rumors, now's the best time to post it" he smiled.  
"Yeah, that sounds great" Catherine yawned.  
"Babe... should you be driving?" Dan asked quickly, hearing how sleepy she was in her voice, nevermind the yawning.  
"Yeah, I'm good" she sighed, buckling up.  
"Where are you?" He asked causing Catherine to frown, his tone too serious all of a sudden.  
"Panera... I'm okay, Dan" she groaned.  
"I'm gonna come and meet you, don't move" Then suddenly the phone was dead, Catherine kicking herself a little as she sat in the parking lot and waited. She decided to eat her food while she waited, the warm soup only making her sleepier as it filled her up.  
By the time Arin pulled up, Dan climbing out of the passenger side, Catherine was almost falling asleep against her door, startling as her boyfriend knocked on the window. She sat up and rolled down the window, grinning at him.  
"How much?" she giggled, looking up at him. Dan shook his head, trying not to smile.  
"Step out of the car, little lady..." He said sternly, stepping back with his hands on his hips. Catherine undid her belt and slid out of the car, leaning against the side as he stepped closer to her.  
"Is there a problem officer?" she giggled, looking behind him to see Arin getting out of his car.  
"I'll say" the younger man snapped, folding his arms. "What the hell were you thinking?"  
"I'm sorry" Catherine frowned, seeing that he was a little more serious than Dan was.  
"It's fine, he was just worried... we all were." Dan sighed, pulling her into a hug. "Come on, I'm driving you home..."  
"I'm sorry... goodnight Arin" she huffed, looking up at the other man.  
"G'night... Don't pull this shit again! If you're in a fucking crash, I'm not coming to your funeral..." He growled, pointing at her accusingly before getting back into his car.  
Dan sighed, climbing into the driver's seat and waiting for Catherine to get back into the car before setting off to her place.

Back at Catherine's apartment, Dan pushed her down the hallway towards her room, helping her shed her clothes before she collapsed on the bed, leaving her boyfriend to pull her and position her so he could lay the duvet over her.  
"Stay with me" she groaned "You're here now... just stay with me..." Dan sighed, smiling as he pulled off his shirt and stepped out of his jeans, joining her under the covers.  
"Don't you ever try to drive when you're this tired again" he muttered, trying to sound cross.  
"Shh... sleep time" she sighed, her eyes already closed as she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close as she fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, not much going on... just another calm before the storm...


	37. Who still uses Vimeo?

The weekend rolled around and Catherine made her way down to the space to film, she was pretty nervous about it all, but Dan assured her it would be fine. She was going to be playing Arin, she hadn't picked an especially old game or even a terrible one, but she had decided that she didn't want to play any of her more competitive games with Arin, not wanting to come accross as too much, like she had done in her playthrough with Suzy. She wasn't a particularly angry person, just when the right situation arose. So they had settled on Bully.  
"Geat" Arin smiled when he saw the game, heading into the room to set up. "I've seen people suggest it a few times. It'll be good for a one off..."  
"Do you want me in there with you?" Dan hummed, wrapping his arms around Catherine's waist as they walked awkwardly towards the recording room.  
"Doesn't matter what I say, does it?" she giggled, pulling out of his hold and settling himself down on the couch.  
"Nope," He grinned, throwing himself down beside her.  
"Ugh... hands to yourself! She's mine for ten minutes!" Arin snapped.  
"You ready?" Dan grinned, leaning over to set the timer.  
"Yeah..." Catherine swallowed, nodding quickly.  
Arin loaded up the game and sat back with the two of them, making sure everything was running before hitting record.  
"Hey, welcome to grumpcade" Arin smiled.  
"Welcome," Catherine giggled, Dan rubbing her back reassuringly.  
"Woah, who the fuck are you?" Arin gasped, the two of them chuckling. "Nah, seriously. It's me Arin, I'm here with Catherine"  
"Hey," She hummed.  
"We're playing Bully" Arin continued.  
"Or Canis Canem Edit" Catherine chimed in "On the PAL systems..."  
"Huh," Arin nodded, starting up the game. "So Catherine brought this in because she thought I'd beat her ass bloody on Tekken..."  
"You fucking wish!" Catherine snapped, grinning at him.  
"Oh, you wanna switch out the fucking game?" Arin snapped back.  
"Ten seconds into the show and you're shouting at the guest" Dan chuckled quietly.  
"Shut up! You're not a part of this!" Arin growled, all three of them completely missing the opening cut scene to the game.

Even though the game was slow and was a lot of running around, there was enough good commentary to get two solid episodes out of it before it just descended into awful jokes and giggling.  
Arin finally shut off the recording and Catherine sighed, sitting back with Dan.  
"That was fun" Arin grinned "We should recording something else, something two player next time"  
"Well, you pick next time, I nearly went grey trying to decide on this one" She giggled up at him.  
"Deal" Arin nodded, nudging Dan who was currently trying to fall asleep. "Dude, show's over, go home, you look like shit..." The older man groaned, rolling over so his back was facing them.  
"Fuck it, I'll lock you in here... g'night" Arin shrugged, walking out of the room.  
"Want me to drive you home?" Catherine mumbled, shaking him a little.  
"Nah, I'll be fine" Dan yawned, turning back to smile at her.  
"Uh uh... not after the other day, you're not sleep driving either," She said sternly, poking him a little.  
"I won't, Bar will give me a lift back" he grinned cheekily. Catherine sighed, shaking her head a little.  
"Well, I'm gonna head home, I've got some stuff for my channel to do..." She mumbled, leaning in to kiss Dan's forehead.  
"Hmm... gonna record a love song for me?" he mumbled, reaching on to take her hand before she went.  
"I'll record something for you" she hummed, kissing his hand before leaving him to sleep on the couch.  
The others let Dan sleep for a while as they all worked around him, Barry and Kevin working quickly to get those episodes queued up, Arin quickly working on a head for the opening. It wasn't until a few hours later when Barry received an email from Catherine, no subject line, just a panicked message.

**_What do I do about getting videos taken down? Videos that are mine?_ **

Barry frowned, knowing that she'd have to deal with this at some point. They regularly had to deal with people reuploading their stuff. Montages and tributes were all fine and good, but it was the people that just straight re-uploaded their stuff that was a problem. He quickly typed a reply.

_**Depends on where it's uploaded, but there should be a report or flag option. What did they upload?** _

It only took a moment for Catherine to reply, her response worrying him a little.

_**No, it's not one of my YouTube videos... It's an old video of me.** _

She sent Barry a link through to Vimeo, opening an awful quality video. It took him a moment to work out which one was Catherine, then she started talking.  
"Just play the fucking song, Dennis!" The younger woman snapped, her back to the camera as she shouted at the drummer. The person filming seemed to be part of the audience, quite close to the stage. The drum beat kicked in and Catherine turned, revealing her smeared lipstick and running mascara. The way she handled her own guitar was aggressive, but not as aggressive as the way she stepped up to the mic.  
"You hit me once, I hit you back. You gave a kick, I gave a slap. You smashed a plate over my head, then I set fire to our bed!" She was angry, not really singing, more shouting her words. "My black eye casts no shadow, your red eye sees no blame. Your slaps don't stick. Your kicks don't hit. So we remain the same! Blood sticks, sweat drips. Break the lock if it don't fit. A kick in the teeth is good for some. A kiss with a fist is better than none!" Her head hung as she concentrated on playing, suddenly someone else ran out on stage, Catherine's head snapping up. "Get the fuck back Alex, I swear to fuck" She shouted, her mouth away from the mic. Suddenly the video cut out, leaving Barry sitting there for a moment. He was trying to work out why Catherine was upset about the video, sure she came accross as a little harsh, but maybe that was a part of it? Maybe it was an act for the song? He quickly fired an email back.

**_Like I said, if you don't want them to have it up, you can flag it. Is everything okay?_ **

He added that part on the end because he had to know. It took longer for the reply, but he finally understood.

**_That was the night my band split up, I had a huge fight with the drummer. If there's footage of that night, I want it gone... I don't mind any of my other shows with that band, but that night was bad. We got banned from that club._ **

Barry frowned, sitting back in his chair for a while before turning to Arin to help him get the video taken down after he'd seen it for himself.  
"She was really different back then..." Arin mumbled, sitting at the desk with him.  
"Wonder if Dan knows about this" Barry sighed.  
"He knows she was in a band and dated the drummer..." Arin explained, quickly adding. "He told me about it... She warned him about anything that might come up"  
"Smart..." Barry nodded, looking through the Vimeo account to see if there were more videos. "She said she doesn't mind any other gigs, she just doesn't want this one up..."  
"It makes sense... she looks pretty beaten up in the video..." Arin frowned, rocking back in his seat.  
"What do you think Dan will say?" Barry mumbled, glancing at the recording room.  
"He's not gonna be happy, but I think they've probably talked about this before man..." Arin shrugged, pulling out his phone. "Don't worry about this much more tonight, head home... take that lump with you"  
"Yeah..." Barry groaned, stretching a little "I'll go get him up..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Catherine, I'm sorry... just another little get to know you thing about her.


	38. I'm sorry

The weeks leading up to Christmas went by and everything seemed to be going fine. The video had been taken down, and Arin and Barry hadn't heard anything more about the old band. Suzy spent the weekends shopping with Catherine and bringing her back to her house to help decorate. The pair posted a few videos on Instagram every time they were together, just confirming more and more her connection with the grumps until finally the videos uploaded. The response to was good, for the most part, they seemed to like her sense of humor and how she and Arin had similar tempers to puzzles and slow parts of the game. There wasn't a question between the fans now that she and Dan were dating, but nothing had been definitely said on the main channel or their social media pages.  
Catherine's school broke up for the holidays and Arin, Suzy, Ross and Holly were spending more and more time with family and friends, leaving the others days pretty open.

Ross had come down to the space for a few hours, helping Kevin out with something when Catherine arrived with bags of food.  
"You are an actual fucking angel..." Barry groaned, rushing over to her and taking the bags out of her hands.  
"It's nothing, really" She giggled, trying to warm herself up a little as she joined the guys at their desks. "You guys are all wrapped up in your own stuff, gotta keep you nerds fueled..."  
"Saint, total saint..." Kevin grinned back at her as he rummaged around in the food.  
"Hey, while the recording room is empty, you wanna film something?" Dan smiled up from the couch. "It doesn't have to be anything crazy... just a little something for Christmas?"  
"You really think people want to listen to me again?" Catherine giggled, grabbing Dan's food along with hers before sitting down.  
"Even if they don't, you can still record something if you want..." Ross mumbled from his computer, the room falling silent for a moment.  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Dan blinked, sitting up a little.  
"What?" Ross asked, looking up.  
"What do you mean, even if they don't?" Dan half chuckled "They liked her videos..."  
"That's not what I read..." Ross muttered under his breath as he sank down behind his monitors.  
"What are you talking about?" Dan snapped, realizing his friend wasn't joking.   
"Dan, it's okay-" Catherine started, but Dan talked over her.  
"Have you got a problem with Catherine being on the show?"   
"No, man... not at all" Ross frowned, looking up at the older man.  
"So what's this all about then?" Dan huffed, crossing his arms.  
"Nothing! I literally said it doesn't matter. We didn't care what the fans thought about Suzy..." Ross shrugged, leaning back in his seat now.  
"The fans don't have a problem with Suzy" Barry frowned, stepping in a little now.  
"Oh come on, you spend more time of Reddit than any of us" Ross smirked, folding his arms as well.  
"Our real fans don't have a problem with Suzy" Barry pressed, getting out of his seat. "And they don't have a problem with Catherine either... in fact, quite a lot of her fans have started watching us..."  
"Yeah, her fans..." Ross sighed, looking back at his computer.  
"Dude, if you've got something to say, just fucking say it, man..." Dan muttered, trying hard not to glare at the younger man.  
"Can I say something?" Catherine frowned, addressing Dan.  
"What is it, baby girl?" Dan sighed, turning to her.  
"Should I just..." She huffed, shaking her head a little. "For the sake of arguments... just not do this anymore?" The sadness in Catherine's eyes broke Dan's heart, his head immediately spinning to look at the smaller.  
"I don't know, baby, I don't have a fucking problem with you being here. Not one!" He snapped.  
"I don't have a problem man... if you want to bring your girlfriend/not girlfriend on the show for shits and giggles, go ahead" Ross huffed, shaking his head a little. Dan stared in disbelief for a moment before turning to Catherine.  
"We're leaving..." He leaned down and gathered up his things, throwing them into his bag with very little care before storming out, Catherine close behind him.  
"Why did you have to go and say something like that?" Barry sighed, turning to Ross.  
"What?" Ross groaned "I didn't fucking mean anything by it..."  
"None of us have a problem with her man... as for bringing Suzy into this... that's your best friend's wife, man..." Barry muttered.  
"Yeah, which is why I can't say shit, but he's been with her like, what? A few months?" Ross scoffed "This isn't gonna fucking last, and I'm not putting up with the shit from the fandom when it all falls apart..."  
"That's not for you to decide!" Barry snapped, running a hand through his short hair for a moment. "That was really uncalled for, what you said to her... And you have some serious making up to do... that's even if you can catch him before he talks to Arin, which he will, dude..."  
"Of course, he'd run to him..." Ross huffed, rocking in his seat.  
"Yeah, he would! Because his other friend just upset his girlfriend!" Barry snapped again, trying as hard a Dan to keep himself together. 

"Dan... it's okay, I'm fine" Catherine sighed from the passenger seat.  
"I know, baby... just... fuck, who does he think he is?!" Dan glared at the road ahead of him.   
"Let's just go home..." she muttered, reaching out to touch his shoulder.   
"Yeah..." Dan sighed, about to turn to his girlfriend when suddenly something hit the car, almost ramming it off the road, Dan' head slammed against his window as he felt Catherine thrown into him, the sound of crunching metal and shattering glass ringing in his ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry... things are gonna get sad for a while


	39. You Scared Us

Dan bit back a cry, forcing his head to turn to see Catherine slumped in her seat.  
"Cat..." He choked, feeling blood trickling down his face as he leaned into her. "Baby girl, talk to me... Catherine please" he pleaded, reaching out to shake her, an intense pain shooting up his arm from his wrist.  
"Fuck! Are you okay?!" A voice shouted from outside the car, but Dan wasn't paying attention to that, he was trying to see if Catherine was still alive, pushing her hair out of her face, blood plastering it against her head.  
"Cat... fucking talk to me, please" he sobbed, trying to undo his belt so he had better access to her.  
"Man, don't move! We've called an ambulance!"  
Dan leaned in closer to her, not wanting to move her head so instead feeling her wrist for a pulse, his own heart skipping a beat as he felt it against his fingers.  
"Baby girl, it's okay, I got you" he whispered, kissing the top of her head. His car door opened behind him, grabbing his attention.  
"Sir, are you okay?" A female voice asked, Dan turning to look at her. "Is your friend okay?"  
"No, she's not conscious" Dan explained, keeping one hand on her as he talked to the woman.  
"Are you okay?" She asked, leaning into the car a little.  
"I... I think my hand is broken, but I don't give a shit right now" He swallowed, turning back to Catherine.  
"Sir, your head is bleeding..." The woman frowned, placing a hand on his back for a moment.  
"I'm fine, it's fine." He huffed, leaning into Catherine to hear her breathing, it sounded harsh and raspy, he needed to get her to a hospital now.  
"We called 911... They're on their way"

Dan didn't leave Catherine's side, almost lashing out at the paramedics when they tried to take Catherine to the hospital without him. Once there, Catherine was taken away from him as he was led to have his wrist looked at. A few hours later, after having it x-rayed and confirming that his wrist was broken, he was sat outside on his phone, desperately trying to get through to anyone.  
"Suzy. Suzy, hand the phone to Arin... please" he sobbed, holding his broken wrist to his chest as he screwed his eyes shut.  
"Babe, what's wrong?" she asked, some shuffling indicating that she was moving around now.  
"I just... fuck, I need Arin. I need you guys here" He swallowed, trying not to just burst into tears over the phone.  
"Honey, calm down... what's happened?" Suzy asked, Arin's voice muffled in the background. 'it's Dan, I think something's happened...'  
"We're in the hospital... Catherine's really hurt, they still won't let me see her..." He explained, his voice tight as he held it together.  
"What?!" Suzy almost screamed. "Shit! Are you okay? What's going on?"  
"I'm okay... But Catherine isn't... I think she's still in surgery or something, I came outside to call you, there's no reception up there..."  
"Dan, we're on our way" Suzy gasped, more rustling and a jangling of keys.  
"What's happened?" Arin's voice asked, clearer now.  
"Dan and Cat are in the hospital, it's not good. We need to get down there now." Suzy explained, Dan just clutching his phone, listening to his friends talk. "It's okay, we're on our way.. do you want me to stay on the phone with you?"  
"No. I wanna go see if she's okay... can... can you ring Barry for me?" Dan muttered.  
"Of course, of course, honey. Everything is gonna be okay, it's gonna be fine. We'll be there soon. I love you" Suzy assured him, but he could hear the panic in her voice as there was the sound of a car door opening and closing.  
"Love you too.." Dan whimpered, getting to his feet and walking back inside. "I'll see you when you get here..."

Back inside, Dan quickly found someone to ask about Catherine.  
"I'll take you to see her" The nurse muttered, leading him to her room. Inside, Catherine was hooked up to a heart monitor, an IV in her arm, but she was conscious, her body propped up in what looked like an uncomfortable position.  
"Cat..." he sighed, crossing over to her bed and taking her hand.  
"Hey," she groaned, smiling up at him.  
"Fuck... baby girl, you scared me..." He muttered, feeling tears rolling down his cheeks again.  
"I scared me too" She chuckled weakly, her voice quiet and hoarse.  
"So what's the damage?" he frowned, kneeling down beside her.  
"Uh... ribs... sprained knee.." she struggled, her voice trailing off every now and then.  
"What's up with your voice?" he mumbled, leaning in a little closer.  
"Vocal cord paralysis..." She sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. "Bruising... mild concussion..."  
"Cat..." He groaned, resting his head on the bed as he held onto her hand. "I'm so sorry..."  
"Why?" she huffed "S'not your fault..."  
"I know..." he whimpered.  
"Mr. Avidan?" A voice by the door muttered.  
"yeah?" He swallowed, looking up.  
"There are some people outside to see you two..." The nurse explained.  
"Uh... yeah, yeah those are our friends..." he explained, getting to his feet. The nurse left the room, then a few moments later Arin and Suzy rushed in, the pair of them pulling him into a hug.  
"What the fuck happened!?" Arin gasped, his hand gripping the older man's shirt.  
"We were in a crash..." Dan choked, wrapping his arms around the pair of them.  
"Give them... hugs from me" Catherine muttered from her bed, everyone turning to her.  
"Oh fuck, Cat!..." Suzy cried out, seeing the state her friend was in and rushing to her side. "Oh god... when Dan called, we were so worried!"  
"I'm okay" she whispered, wincing a little as her throat tightened painfully.  
"Baby, it's okay... you rest your voice" Dan muttered, walking over to taking Catherine's hand again.  
"What happened?" Suzy frowned at him.  
"Her throat is messed up pretty bad, I want her to rest it... Her side of the car got hit..." Dan sighed, looking over at Arin. "Did you call Barry?"  
"Yeah, he's on his way" Arin nodded, checking his phone. "He... he's asking if you want Ross here?" He looked up, eyeing his friend. "Why would he ask that?" Dan's gaze moved to his feet for a moment before looking back at Catherine.  
"Do you want him here?" He muttered under his breath, Catherine shaking her head a little, her closing. "No..." Dan muttered, turning back to Arin.  
"Did something happen?" Suzy frowned, taking Catherine's other hand.  
"Something happened at the space... I'll tell you guys later... it's not important now..." Dan said quickly, looking up at Arin.  
"Wait..." The younger man blinked. "Were you guys coming back from the office?"  
"Yeah" Dan replied, sitting down in the chair by Catherine's bed.  
"Oh my god..." Suzy swallowed, looking up at her husband.  
"What?" Dan blinked, turning to her. Arin just shaking his head.  
"We passed the crash... fuck. Dan... your car was totaled!" Suzy gasped, kneeling down beside Catherine's bed. "Oh my god... you two are lucky to be alive!"  
"We were wondering what could be causing so much traffic, and when we passed, Suzy said something about a car crash, but I wasn't listening, dude, I broke the speed limit trying to get here..."  
"Hey, if you had crashed, you would've been here with us anyway" Dan chuckled darkly.  
"I just... fuck.." Suzy swallowed. "Danny, I'm serious... Cat's side of the car was wrecked... I didn't recognize it when we passed..."  
"I wasn't paying much attention..." The older man mumbled, looking back at his girlfriend.  
"What else is wrong with her?" Arin asked, pulling another chair over to her bed.  
"Broken ribs, something about her knee... her voice is messed up for a while, concussion..." He explained, trying to remember what she'd said.  
"What about you?" Arin frowned, placing a hand on his friend's leg.  
"Me? I'm fine... bump to the head, nothing bad... broken wrist... it's all fine" He brushed it off, squeezing Catherine's hand and feeling her squeeze back, despite looking fast asleep.

A little while later, Barry walked in, accompanied by a nurse.  
"Shit..." he muttered under his breath, stepping over to the two of them and pulling Dan into a hug. "Oh god... after that fucking argument... Don't you fucking scare me like this again..."  
"Sorry," Dan chuckled softly against the younger man's shoulder, gripping onto his shirt.  
"What argument?" Arin almost snapped, sitting up.  
"Arin... it's fine, I said not now..." Dan muttered, turning his head a little.  
"Did you guys have an argument with Ross?" Suzy chimed in, getting up from her seat.  
"You didn't tell them?" Barry asked, looking up at the older man.  
"No man, something came up" Dan snapped back, even Catherine looking up at him now.  
"Y'need t-tell them..." She muttered, tugging at the hem of his shirt a little.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're okay! Kinda... 
> 
> I'm sorry I've been quiet... Still really sick, but I've been at work too... those two combined make me sleep for fucking days...  
> Hope you're all still liking the story


	40. Goddammit Ross...

"Tell us what?" Suzy frowned, watching Barry shrink back a little. Dan groaned loudly, turning to his girlfriend.  
"Babe..." he started but Catherine just nodded her head, offering him a small smile. "We got into an argument with Ross about Catherine being on the show..."  
"Why? What's wrong?" Arin frowned, folding his arms.  
"I don't now... I really don't know, but he was talking about the fans not liking her and shit..." Dan mumbled, looking up at his friend.  
"What?" Arin almost snapped "What is he talking about?"  
"I don't know man... Look, I didn't want to bring this shit up right now, everything's pretty fucked right now..." Dan sighed, shaking his head and sitting down next to Catherine.  
"Barry, what was said?" Arin huffed, turning to the other man.  
"Look..." he frowned, wanting to stay out of this for now, but he didn't have much choice. "I even told Ross what he said was out of order... he kept saying he had no problem with her, but people on Reddit were saying shit..."  
"That site always talks shit, what's new?" Arin scoffed. "What's been said about Catherine?"  
"I don't know, I haven't even seen any of the shit Ross is talking about... there's the obvious stuff about her and Dan, some jealous fangirls... some guys saying girls can't play games, but nothing that would suggest our fans don't want her..." Barry explained. "For the most part, people really like her." He turned to Catherine, giving her a soft smile and receiving one back.  
"We just bailed when he started talking shit... Catherine was upset, I was upset... Hell, you would've walked out when he brought up Suzy..." Dan murmured  
"What?!" Arin snapped, turning to the older man. "How did Suzy come into this?" Barry quickly stood, seeing Arin start to fume.  
"Look... he didn't say anything about Suzy, he just said that Reddit was treating Catherine the same way they treated her..." Barry explained quickly, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder.  
"Is it really that bad?" Suzy frowned, folding her arms now.  
"No..." Barry frowned, turning to her. "Not as far as I know... I think we all would've noticed if they disliked her that much... she's only been in a few episodes... they don't even know her that well..."  
"What about when Cat and Dan go official?" Suzy muttered, "How do we know this isn't going to blow up?"  
"It won't..." Barry sighed, his shoulder falling a little. "I have enough confidence in our fans... our real fans..."  
"Bear's right, she's part of this family, anyone who has a problem with her doesn't even come into it..." Arin shrugged. Catherine smiled from her bed, listening to everyone fighting her case, she really wished she could hug them all.  
"So... Catherine's gonna be out of commission for a while," Suzy said finally, looking down at the girl in question. "Dan, you're fine just sitting in with Arin while he plays..."  
"How much backup stuff do we have right now?" Dan frowned, glancing at Arin for a moment.  
"Not a lot, we used a lot of it over the holidays" Arin sighed, understanding why Dan was asking. "You do know that we're all here for Cat..."  
"I know..." Dan mumbled, sitting down beside his girlfriend. "I just... I feel bad leaving her like this..."  
"'s work..." Catherine sighed weakly, tapping his arm in an attempt to slap him playfully. "'ll be fine..."  
"None of us are suggesting you leave her on her own, Dan" Barry mumbled. "We can take turns staying with her... if she wants to" realizing that Catherine could actually hear this conversation, and wondered if she really wanted round the clock care.  
"'s okay Bar..." Catherine chuckled weakly, holding out her good arm for his hand. Barry took it and smiled, looking up at Dan.   
"Don't worry about the first few days, we've got enough lined up... there's some backup stuff left..." Arin sighed, smiling at them all. "Cat's channel might need a vlog update or something when she's feeling a bit better, can't imagine she'll be doing any singing for a while..." He couldn't help but smirk.  
"Thank you..." Dan sighed, glancing at them all. "Fuck this day has been too damn long..."  
"Are you allowed to stay with her?" Barry frowned.  
"I don't know..." Dan replied, glancing at his girlfriend. "I'll ask..."  
"Well, we're glad you guys are okay" Suzy smiled, pulling Dan into a hug. "Remember what Arin said, don't sweat about work... just keep us up to date, we'll be back to see Cat soon"  
"Yeah dude, I'll call you tomorrow" Arin smiled, taking over the hug as Suzy pulled away.  
"If they don't let you stay, I'll see you at home..." Barry sighed, patting Dan's back. They all took turns in taking Catherine's hand, muttering encouraging words before they left, leaving Catherine and Dan alone.  
"D'ya think.... they're mad?" Catherine groaned, sitting up in bed a little.  
"Arin is probably pissed as hell..." Dan sighed, sitting beside her. "I just think he didn't want to flip out too much in front of you..."  
"'s his wife... 'd be mad..." she sighed, taking his hand.  
"It's not just about Suzy, he's upset for you too..." Dan mumbled. Catherine rolled her eyes a little but Dan continued "What he said was true, you're a part of this now..."

Dan hadn't been allowed to stay, despite his protests, but Catherine assured him it would be okay. He promised her that he'd be there first thing in the morning to see her, after stopping by her place to grab her pajamas and some clothes for whenever she was going to be released. The doctors assured him that she wouldn't be in long, none of her injuries were severe enough to need intensive care, but they needed to keep her for observations after her head injuries.  
It wasn't until Dan was leaving the hospital that he realized he didn't have a way of getting home, he pulled out his phone and called Barry, asking him to give him a lift.  
"How was Arin?" The older man sighed, climbing into the passenger seat.  
"I've never seen him so mad..." Barry frowned, turning out of the parking lot.  
"Has he talked to Ross yet?" Dan asked, trying to find out how to contact his insurer.  
"He uh... told Ross he wanted to see him tomorrow..." Barry mumbled, glancing at his friend for a moment before sighing. "Ross knows about the accident..."  
"Who told him?" Dan blinked, looking up at him.  
"Arin..." Barry huffed, looking back at the road. "Kind of... angrily..."  
"Fuck..." Dan sighed, his head falling back against his headrest. "What did he say?"  
"Something along the lines of... If you give a shit about Catherine, you'll get your ass to the hospital and beg her to forgive you..." Barry muttered, thinking about the argument he'd heard over the phone.  
"What about Suzy? How was she?" Dan frowned, turning in his seat a little. Barry went quiet for a second, a sad expression on his face.  
"She was quiet... really quiet" He mumbled, "I think it was a mix of... upset with Ross and scared for Catherine..."  
"Did you say anything to him after I left?" Dan mumbled, thinking about calling Suzy when he got back to check on her.  
"I chewed him out for a bit... yeah" Barry huffed. "Worked in silence for a few hours, then we got the call from Arin..."  
"Bear, I'm sorry if this makes work hard for a while..." Dan mumbled, looking up at his friend.  
"It'll fine, dude" Barry smiled reassuringly. "Arin and Ross will fight it out, they'll cry and make up... they've known each other for years..."  
"Yeah..." Dan sighed, resting back in his seat again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More sad happy shit!   
> It's gonna get better guys... it's okay  
> I'm sorry
> 
>  
> 
> health update! - Now have a crazy fever!


	41. Vlog Update

Catherine was discharged the next day after being given painkillers for her various injuries. Arin drove her back to her apartment, Dan already there to set everything up for her.  
Ross had come to see her, telling her he was sorry for what he said, if it came off as insulting or that he didn't want her in the group. What was said about Suzy, Catherine wasn't sure, she wasn't really in the mood to ask about it.  
"Hey baby girl" Dan grinned, opening the door for her and immediately taking over from Barry to help her into the house.  
"'m okay" Catherine sighed, grinning at him as she limped into the living room, collapsing back on the couch.  
"Careful!" Dan gasped "Jeez! Lemme get you some pillows"  
"Stop" His girlfriend chuckled weakly, batting his hands away. He was a lot better now the stronger painkillers had worn off and the initial pains had died down.  
"I'm gonna get going" Barry mumbled, carrying Catherine's bag in and placing it down on the floor.  
"Y'dont have to" Catherine smiled up at him.  
"Are things busy at the office?" Dan frowned, turning to his friend.  
"Yeah, but it's fine, we're on top of it... filming a few steam train videos... Luckily we had a table flip ready to be queued up..."  
"Okay," Dan nodded, wandering over to the kitchen. "Thanks for all your help..."  
"It's fine, just keep on top of that insurance stuff..." He reminded him.  
"They're sorting out a temporary car for me while it's all sorted" Dan explained, leaning against the door.  
"Okay..." The younger man nodded, checking his phone. "Okay, I gotta go, Arin wants me back..."  
"Thanks" Catherine whispered from the couch, Barry quickly crossing the room to give her a hug.  
"Get well soon..." He smiled warmly, straightening up to give Dan a hug before leaving.  
Dan closed the door after him and returned to the couch, sitting beside his girlfriend.  
"Hey..." he sighed, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.  
"Hey..." she muttered back, turning to smile at him.  
"Do you need anything?" He frowned, playing with a few strands of her hair.  
"No..." She giggled softly, leaning to rest her head on his shoulder. "I'm okay... happy to be home..."  
"I'm glad you're home too..." Dan sighed, kissing the top of her head. "I was so worried about you..."  
"seems worse... cus of my voice" she groaned, straining a little to finish her sentence.  
"Shh... baby, we're gonna have to get you a whiteboard or something" Dan frowned, playing with her hair again. Catherine smirked, rolling her eyes as he pulled out her phone, typing out

Everything's fine. Nothing's badly broken, the doctor said my throat should be okay in a few weeks.

Dan sighed, smiling at her.  
"I'm still gonna worry about you... like... forever" he smirked, kissing her forehead. "I love you..."  
"Love you too" Catherine croaked, leaning up to kiss him properly.  
"Wanna do something for your channel?" he asked, pulling back a little. "Tell them you're not gonna be uploading much for a little while?" Catherine smirked, nodding a little, tapping out another note on her phone.

Are you gonna talk for me?

Dan looked at the note for a moment before grinning.  
"I've got a better idea" he beamed, sitting up for a moment and grabbing one of Catherine's notebooks from the coffee table.

Once their words had been planned out carefully, Dan set up the camera so Catherine didn't have to leave the couch. He placed a chair behind the camera and sat down, flipping back to the first page.  
"this's stupid..." she giggled, shaking her head a little as Dan made sure everything looked okay on the small display.  
"It's gonna be hilarious, trust me" he grinned. "If you don't like it, we'll do it your way" Catherine gave a small nod before Dan started recording.  
"Okay... one, two... three" He counted in before he started talking "Hey guys it's SongCat!" Catherine immediately bursting into a fit of strained giggles at Dan's awful impression of her. "Babe, you gotta keep a straight face!" He stage-whispered at her, Catherine quickly composing herself. "Hey guys, it's SongCat!" Catherine mouthed along with Dan's voice, reading the notebook as the filmed.  
"I was recently in an accident, everything's fine, I'm okay, but I damaged my throat, so I sound like this now" Catherine giggled because the last part wasn't on the notes, neither was what Dan continued with. "Which is cool, because I happen to sound like this other really cool YouTuber... so I'll still be doing covers and shit, but now I've got a deep, sexy voice instead"  
"Babe..." She groaned, grinning at him.  
"Sorry... I mean, wait, yeah sorry me" He giggled back at her. They picked up where they'd left the notes. "This won't last forever, but there won't be any videos for a while unless I can find some things to do that don't involve talking..." Dan was about to continue when Catherine started coughing, her breath almost rattling as she curled up in pain, her broken ribs making it ten times worse. Dan frowned and stopped the recording, getting up to sit with her while she calmed down. He handed her a glass of water and pulled her back against his chest, smoothing down her hair.  
"You okay?" he muttered when she was settled. She gave a small nod and set her glass down, making no move to let Dan up. "You wanna start that video again?" She thought for a moment before shaking her head a little.  
"'ll edit it..." she hissed, her throat very sore now. Dan sighed, kissing the top of her head and glancing back at the camera.  
"Lemme up for a sec..." he mumbled, waiting for Catherine to move before he reached over to the camera again, pressing record. He settled back down on the couch, pulling her back to him. When she was comfortable he turned back to the camera.  
"Hey guys, sorry about that..." he smiled. "As you can see, we're a little worse for wear..." He held up his cast, pouting a little. "But we're okay, me more than Cat... Cat's pretty smashed up right now..." She gave a little chuckle, wincing a little, but still smiling. "So I'm gonna be a good boyfriend and take care of her..." Catherine glanced up at him quickly, but Dan continued. "Don't worry about Game Grumps, we'll still be uploading... But this isn't about me, this is for Catherine's channel so uh..." he looked down at his girlfriend, grinning "What do you call your fans?" Catherine rolled her eyes, grabbing her phone and tapping out a message. Dan read it and quickly looked up at the camera, a little hurt. "She says she doesn't have enough fans to start naming them... guys, leave a comment, what do you guys wanna be called?" Catherine grinned, shaking her head a little. "I'm embarrassing her now, so we're gonna go, bye!" Dan gave a small wave before getting up and switching off the camera.  
"Was that okay?" He asked, Catherine nodding a little. "You're okay with the whole BF thing?"  
"'s fine" Catherine muttered, pulling him into a kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See! things are okay!... yeah?  
> Things are good and Dan's gone public!!!


	42. Reading your comments

Over the next day or so, Catherine edited the video, Dan refused to let her sit at her computer for longer than a few hours, leading her back to bed to rest. She finally got round to posting it on her channel while Dan was busy at the Grump space. She had convinced him that she was okay to be left on her own, she could get around her apartment pretty easily and she wouldn't do anything too strenuous without someone there to help her. Dan had warned the guys about the video and Catherine had promised not to read the comments until he got home. It was hard, she knew he was going to read them with everyone else at work, but it was too late now to make him promise not to... If anything really bad had been said, Barry would've said something to her to give her some kind of heads up.  
She decided to spend some time searching for supplies she needed for DIY videos, something that didn't involve singing. The crushing thought always returning to her that even after her voice came back properly, she wouldn't be able to sing as well... But Dan assured her that she would be fine, he would take her to his voice coach and it would all be okay... Work had been very understanding with what had happened, accepting that she needed time off to rest and recover from her injuries before she returned. Catherine thought she'd be lost without her day job, but without having to rush out of the house and get folders of work ready every other night, she had so much more time to work on her channel, updating her other social networking sites and just generally getting around to the things that had been swept under the carpet for so long. One of the things she found herself doing was going through old videos she had saved of herself on her hard drive, picked up from various places she'd found them. A few of them were from her friend filming her in the early days of her open mic nights, some of her old bad, but those got quickly filed away and ignored as she looked back on happier memories.  
Catherine lost herself in the past until Dan got home, closing the front door loudly to let her knew he was in before dropping his bag and coat in the hall, dragging his feet to her office.  
"Hey baby girl" he hummed, shuffling into the room and wrapping his arms around her from behind. "You been on here all day?"  
"no" She sighed, smiling up at him. "found stuff..."  
"Yeah?" Dan smirked, leaning on her desk a little. "Stuff you can show me?" Catherine glanced back at the folder, scanning over a few before opening the ones of her in the bar.  
"These..." she muttered, pulling them up. The first one that played wasn't that old, maybe a few months? Coming on close to half a year. She was singing Drops of Jupiter, perhaps getting a little too emotional over some parts, but when Catherine turned to Dan for his reaction, he had a different expression to the one she thought he'd have. He had a strange grin accross his face, his gaze flicking from the video to Catherine before taking over the mouse.  
"When was this video?" He muttered  
"May?... June?" Catherine shrugged "Why?"  
"Just... lemme show you something" he grinned, opening up youtube and quickly looking up the series he was thinking about. It took a little bit of searching, but he finally found a GameGrumps video dated back to June. Catherine rolled her eyes a little, wondering what awful joke he wanted to show her, probably a dirty joke he'd made to the same tune... He started skipping through the video before finding the point, pausing it and letting Catherine press play. The younger woman huffed, shaking her head as she clicked, hearing Arin's voice chuckle out  
"Dan has a lady friend that he won't tell me about..." Catherine's eyebrows raising a little.  
"Arin, shush" she could hear Dan hiss, she could practically see him pouting.  
"He met her at an open mic night... and he's really fangirling over her" Arin's voice giggled "I have no idea what she looks like, how old she is... she could be a man for all I know" There was a sudden slap noise and Catherine was a little concerned, but when the gameplay continued, she assumed it wasn't serious.  
"Dude, I mean it. Shut up" Dan's voice quickly groaned, Catherine now grinning at the video as Arin teased his friend.  
"I don't know why you're so embarrassed. It's adorable. You're a grown man and you're blushing over this..." Catherine paused the video, turning to him. She wished she could talk properly so she could tell him just how adorable that was.  
"So uh..." Dan smiled shyly, running a hand through his hair. "That was... kinda the first mention of you on the channel..."   
"y'never told me..." She muttered.  
"I... didn't think you'd want to talk to me back then, this was like... just before you met Arin and Suzy" He explained, "I didn't want Arin and the fans to get all hyped up if you weren't interested in me..." Catherine reached out and grabbed his shirt, pulling him forward for a kiss.  
"Dork..." She chuckled, trailing kisses up to his forehead. "Love you..."  
"Well, I know that now" Dan grinned, kissing her forehead back. "Love you too..."  
The two shared the sweet moment for a while before Dan broke the silence.  
"Should we read some of those comments now?" he muttered, Catherine blinking up at him.  
"Y'didn't read any?..." she mumbled.  
"No" He hummed, kissing her forehead again. "We're doing this together..."  
"Kay..." Catherine swallowed, trying to get up from her chair.  
"Woah, where are you going?" he grinned, pulling back and spinning her office chair around, starting to push it towards the door.  
"Dan" she hissed in protest but grinned as he wheeled her through the house to her room, making it easier for her to get onto the bed.  
"I'll grab my laptop," he said, returning the chair to the office and grabbing his bag from the hall, bringing it back to the bed and setting up beside her. The first thing the two of them saw when the loaded up Cat's channel was the number of views the video already had... Catherine had chosen to make the thumbnail a picture of her and Dan with various hospital-related clip art pasted all over them, but other than that, she hadn't posted anywhere that it confirmed their relationship... Dan loaded up the video and muted it, scrolling down to see the comments. To Catherine's surprise, there were barely any dislikes... Well, there were a few thousand, but compared to the number of likes, it didn't make a dent.  
"It all looks good so far..." Dan mumbled, scanning a few comments as he scrolled. Catherine quickly batted his hand away, switching to the top comments. The highest one had over two thousand likes to Catherine's surprise and said

'CUTE COUPLE AWARD OMG TOO CUTE'

She continued to read down the comments, glancing back at Dan every now and then.

'You two are so CUTE !!! So perfect for each other x x x'  
'relationship goals!!!! OMFL'  
'5:57 OMG THE WAY HE LOOKS AT HER!!' with the reply 'Arin's gonna be fuckin jealous'

A lot of comments are that were about Dan cheating on Arin, people asking if Catherine was going to be in more grump episodes when she was better, or if she and Dan were going to sing together.  
"It all seems pretty positive" Dan smiled, resting his head on top of hers. "See... we were worried about nothing" Catherine grinned up at him, taking his hand and kissing it.


	43. Dad's home

Recovery was a boring process, there wasn't much that could be done for any of Catherine's injuries to speed things up, she had exercises for her throat, stretches for her leg and torso for her ribs, but other than that, she was just left to heal slowly.  
Dan's wrist still gave him trouble with some controllers, leaving a lot of the playing to Arin, but that didn't seem to be a problem for the show, Catherine watching one of their latest uploads.  
"I don't know if any of you lovelies were aware, but Dan sustained a nasty masturbation injury, so he hasn't been the one playing for a while now..." Arin muttered into the microphone, Dan currently out of the recording room while the game was still on the menu screen. "I mean... I'd offer to help him but-"   
"Help me with what?" Dan's voice hummed as he joined him.  
"Masturbating," Arin said bluntly, earning a bark of laughter from Dan.  
"Nah man, I'm good" Dan muttered, hesitating for a moment before chuckling quietly, Arin quickly continuing the game.  
"Babe?" Catherine hummed, looking up at the man on the other end of the sofa.  
"Yeah?" he smiled back, tearing his eyes from his own laptop.  
"What were you giggling at here?" She whispered, her voice a lot less strained since she had been doing vocal training. Dan scooched over and rewound the video, his cheeks turning a little pink before grinning and leaning away.  
"Okay, I didn't say it, so you can't be mad" he mumbled, biting his lip a little.  
"What was the joke?" Catherine smirked back. Dan hummed for a minute, thinking of how to word it before he replied.  
"I was gonna say... Nah man, I'm good... I got a chick for that now" Catherine felt her own cheeks redden a little, pleased he hadn't said that. "Sorry..." he mumbled, seeing her expression.  
"No, never be sorry, it was funny..." She smiled, pulling him into a quick kiss. "But... between the guys"  
"Yeah," Dan nodded, kissing her forehead. "Of course..."  
Just then there was a knock at the door, startling the two of them.  
"Are we expecting anyone?" Catherine frowned, glancing at the door.  
"No..." Dan frowned back, getting to his feet to answer it. When he opened it, he was almost a little intimidated by the large man that had been knocking.  
"Um..." he smiled up at him. "Hi"  
"Hi," The man replied, his deep voice making Dan mentally shrink back a little more.  
"Can I help you?" The younger man offered, taking in the stranger's appearance, his long blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail and his beard only made his large jaw look even more impressive. Even under the thick winter layers, Dan would tell the man was built and he was quite scared...  
"Does Catherine live here?" the man asked, leaning a little to see past him.  
"Uh... Yes she does, may I ask why you're asking?" he frowned, unsure of what to do. Suddenly Catherine appeared behind him, a strained squeal making him jump out of his skin.  
"Daddy!" Catherine cried, pushing past her boyfriend to throw her arms around the large man.  
"Oh baby girl!" The man sighed happily, pulling her close.  
"What are you doing here?" She grinned, pulling back to look at his face. "You should've called!"  
"Oh I'm sorry, Should I have called let you know I was coming to see you?" he huffed, his tone turning serious. "The same way you should've told me you were in an accident?" Catherine's shoulders fell a little, Dan watching as she almost turned back into a child.  
"I'm sorry..." she swallowed. There was a tense silence for a moment before the older man groaned, pulling her close again.  
"I can't stay mad at my princess..." he muttered, "I'm just glad you're okay..."  
All the while, Dan was still stood awkwardly in the doorway, watching the pair when Catherine suddenly turned.  
"Dad, this is Dan" she grinned, grabbing her boyfriend's arm.  
"Hello," The man's expression turning dark again.  
"Come in, come on" Catherine grinned, grabbing her Dad's arm as well as she pulled them both into the apartment. 

Once inside, Catherine sat back down on the couch, grinning up at the two of them.  
"I'll make you some tea, your voice sounds awful..." Her dad almost growled, his eyes never leaving Dan's as he moved towards the kitchen.  
"Ah allow me," Dan said quickly, looking for any excuse to get away from him at the moment. "Can I get you anything, sir?"  
"A beer" The older man muttered before sitting himself down next to his daughter.  
"So how did all this happen?" he asked, his tone a little softer now that Dan was out of the room.  
"We were in a car accident" Catherine frowned, pulling one of the pillows to her. "Dan was driving..."  
"He looks like he got out of it okay" Her dad muttered quietly.  
"He broke his hand" Catherine shrugged a little, taking his tone as disappointment in her.  
"So does this guy stay here?" The subject shifted quickly, Catherine blinking up at him.  
"No, dad... he has his own place" She smiled, her dad was not looking convinced.  
"What does he do for a living?" He continued.  
"I'm a musician..." Dan smiled weakly, Catherine's dad tensing noticeably at that.  
"Is that so?" He mumbled, turning to his daughter.  
"Musician... comedian" Catherine explained "He does a show with his friends, it's really funny"  
"You get paid for doing that?" He asked, turning to Dan again.  
"Yes sir" Dan nodded quickly, pushing his hands into his pockets so he didn't fidget.  
"Enough to support yourself or are you leeching off my daughter?" Catherine's dad asked bluntly.  
"Dad!" Catherine hissed, slapping his arm. "He earns more than I do..."  
"Does he have his own place?" Her dad shot back, turning to his daughter.  
"Yeah, he lives with his friend..." Catherine huffed, shaking her head a little. "Dad, he's been looking after me..."  
"Um..." Dan swallowed nervously in the doorway. "We're out of beers, so I'll just go grab some!"  
"I'll tag along with you," the man said gruffly, getting to his feet.  
"Oh it's okay" Dan forced a smile "you two just stay here and chat... I can go on my own..."  
"Nonsense... It'll give us a chance to get to know each other..." Her dad almost growled, wandering back over to the door. Dan shot Catherine a panicked look, but she just giggled and waved him off.  
"Have fun" she sighed.

For the first five minutes of the car journey, it was painfully silent, and Dan was almost happy to keep it that way when Catherine's dad spoke up.  
"Tell me what happened Dan..." he muttered, staring out of the passenger side window.  
"I... I'm sorry?" Dan swallowed, glancing at the large man beside him. "The accident?"  
"Yeah" He sighed, turning a little. Dan really wished he wasn't so unsettled around the man, he didn't really have anything to be scared of...  
"We were in a crash" he frowned, glancing over for a second. "I thought Cat said-"   
"Who was driving?" He cut him off.  
"Uh..." Dan muttered "Me... I was driving. We were on our way back to her apartment and someone hit us..." He could see how her dad was trying to blame him, he had blamed himself for a while... It was a moment before Dan realized that Catherine's dad hadn't replied, he risked another glance as he pulled up to a red light, seeming to bring the man out of his thoughts.  
"And you took her straight to the hospital?" He asked, still not turning to him.  
"Yessir..." Dan nodded.  
"Been looking after her since?" He continued.  
"Yes..."  
There was another pause, the tension in the car lifting a little.   
"You don't seem like a bad guy, Dan..." he mumbled, turning finally to face the younger man.  
"Uh..." Dan swallowed "Thanks?"  
"I just... After the shit Cat's been through... I can't see my girl go through that again..." The older man continued. Dan decided to go with what was being said, save ruining this moment.  
"I understand..." Dan sighed, glancing over at him again.  
"I just... saw the way my baby was all beaten up, I thought she'd ended up with another scumbag..." The man continued, turning back to look out of the window.  
"Sorry" Dan frowned a little, wishing he knew what he was on about. The thought of Catherine being in an abusive relationship made his stomach turn a little, but he was trying to listen to what her dad was saying before he got lost in thought.  
"You don't seem like the type..." he huffed. "I guess third time's the charm..." Dan really needed to talk to Catherine now...  
"Sir... I'm sorry that I may have given the wrong impression, but I assure you that I so love your daughter, and I try to do everything I can to look after her..." Dan tried to explain, feeling he was able to speak now. The older man turned, a small smirk on his face.  
"I bet she hates that..." he chuckled, bringing a small smile to Dan's face.  
"She does... but I think sometimes she just lets me for the sake of my sanity" Dan mumbled.  
"Never told you my name..." The man blinked, sitting up a little and holding out his hand as Dan pulled up outside the store. "Joseph..."

Catherine was starting to get worried about what was taking them so long when Dan and her father came walking through the door, chuckling to each other.  
"Everything okay?" she smiled from the couch, putting down her laptop.  
"Yeah, never better sweetheart" Her dad grinned, leaning down to kiss the top of her head.  
"You're alive" She smirked at her boyfriend as he placed his shopping bag down, pulling out a tube of pringles and sitting down beside her.  
"yeah..." he giggled. "Just... your dad nearly giving me a heart attack..."  
"I'm gonna stick these in the fridge" Joseph smiled, heading off towards the kitchen.  
"He's not that scary when you get to know him..." Catherine hummed, leaning against him. "He just worries about me... constantly..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longer chapter than usual...  
> planned so far ahead that I kinda wanna just speed up to the good bits I have planned!!!


	44. Arby's

"So how long are you staying?" Catherine smiled as her dad joined them in the living room.  
"Not long, just wanted to check up on you" He sighed, taking a swig from his beer.  
"How's mom?" She hummed, resting her head back on Dan's shoulder.  
"She's okay... worried about you, everyone was" Joseph mumbled, looking down at his feet. "Your brother saw the video, he was a little scared..."  
"I'm sorry" Catherine mumbled, feeling bad that she'd caused such a fuss. "I really should've called... but I haven't been able to talk properly for ages, and I didn't think it would be great coming from Dan..."  
"It's fine, I understand" Her dad huffed, grinning at her.  
"So what were you two chatting about when you came in?" she smiled, looking up at her boyfriend.  
"Uh... sports mainly, your dad is a huge giants fan" Dan grinned goofily.  
"I know" Catherine smirked "I was kinda hoping that you'd bond over that... your music too, but he's just as much of a fucking nerd as you are"  
"Hey" Her dad pouted a little before grinning again. "So what kind of music do you do?"  
"Uh... it's changed over the years" Dan shrugged a little. "I'm in two comedy rock bands at the moment..."  
"Anything I would've heard?" The man asked, taking another swig of his beer.  
"Probably not..." Dan chuckled softly. "I'm sure Catherine would be thrilled to play some shit for you, though..."  
"Oh god, there's so many to choose from!" The woman gasped, grinning at the two men.  
"Please choose wisely" Dan groaned, smiling back at her.  
"You want me to show him some of your old stuff instead?" Catherine frowned, turning to grab her laptop.  
"No, no... just... maybe play him Starbomb instead of NSP" He muttered.  
"NSP?" Joseph asked, his brows knitting together a little.  
"Ninja Sex Party" Catherine grinned, pulling up youtube and clicking on the first music video that came up, which just happened to be Road Trip. Catherine turned the laptop to her dad and turned the volume up, eyes glued to her Dad's face to see his reaction.  
"Holy shit, you did a video with Steel Panther?" The man grinned, chuckling at the awful green screen. Dan slowly hid as the song played on, he wasn't embarrassed about his music, but the who message of the song and the fact that this was his girlfriend's dad watching this... But all he could hear was chuckles every now and then and finally it ended.  
"That was hilarious" he smirked, "You write that all yourself?"   
"I have my friend Brian I write with" Dan smiled, uncovering his face. "Our stuff is pretty weird, but the internet loves it..."  
"No it's cool, I haven't seen anyone like that for quite some time" Joseph hummed, taking another swig of beer.  
"Well, thank you" Dan beamed, relieved that her dad actually liked it. "We started back in '09, I had no idea we'd do as well as we have..."  
"Well, that's good" Joseph smiled, placing his beer down. "Listen, I never got the chance to meet Dan under the right circumstances, I feel like I should take you kids out for dinner. Are you okay to be moving around?" He asked, turning to his daughter.  
"Yeah, I mean, could you drive us down there?" Catherine hummed, looking up at Dan.  
"Oh sure, I don't mind" he smiled, looking between the two of them.

"I will never understand where you got your taste in food from" Joseph chuckled as they pulled into the parking lot of Arby's.  
"I don't want to go anywhere fancy, I look like roadkill..." Catherine huffed, Dan helping her out of the car.  
"Hey, you think I'm gonna let someone talk shit about my little girl?" Her dad smirked, walking over to the door.  
"Okay I wanted junk food, sue me" Catherine grinned, hobbling into the resteraunt to find them a table.  
"I'm taking you guys out somewhere nice at some point" Her dad mumbled, pulling out a menu. "You seriously eat this crap?"  
"Hey!" Catherine snapped defensively. "Ease up, you haven't tasted anything yet"  
"Your mother would have a fit if she saw you in here..." he smirked, "What are you gonna get?"  
"Angus three cheese with bacon" Catherine grinned, no hesitation to her reply. Her dad threw her a disapproving look. "What?"  
"Nothing" Her dad shrugged, turning to Dan. "What about you?" Dan almost folded again under his disapproving gaze, he quickly scanned the menu and glanced at his girlfriend. "I uh... I'm just gonna get-"  
"If you say salad, I'm leaving you," Catherine said quickly, earning a chuckle from her dad.  
"I don't care what you get, I'm just playing with ya..." He smirked, looking up to find a waitress.  
"Don't let him bully you!" Catherine giggled, elbowing Dan' in the ribs. "He's a fucking teddy bear"  
"Am I now?" Her dad blinked, smirking at her.  
"The first time I got arrested, you took me for Mcdonalds..." She huffed, resting her elbows on the table.  
"You're my baby girl, I can't be mad at you" Joseph mumbled "That's your mother's job.."  
"Yeah, and she tore both of us a new one when you finally took me home..." Catherine grinned, looking up at a waitress approached their table.  
"Hey there, what can I get you guys today?" She smiled, pulling out a notepad.  
"Hey, can we get the French dip & Swiss, the Angus three cheese with bacon" Dan mumbled, looking up at the older man.   
"Can I get the Angus Philly?" He smiled, scanning over the menu again. "You kids order whatever sides you want too, I'm still paying"

The three of them finished their order and waited for their food, Catherine constantly having to tell her dad to stop teasing Dan. He could feel him relaxing a little, but that didn't stop him from nervously glancing at his girlfriend after everything the man said.  
"Are you still at that school?" Joseph asked through a mouthful of his sandwich.  
"Yeah," Catherine hummed, stealing one of Dan's fries. "Teaching during the week, and then I'm recording for my channel on the weekends..."  
"You're doing music again?" He asked, looking up at her. "Properly?"  
"Yeah..." She blushed a little, looking down at her plate.  
"You never said" Her dad frowned.  
"I didn't think it was a big deal... I showed you a few videos when I was over" She shrugged.  
"Yeah, but you never said you were doing it seriously" Her dad placed down his food, his full attention on her now. "What have you been up to?"  
"Well..." Catherine sighed, taking a bite out of her sandwich. "I've done a music video with a pretty big YouTuber, did an open mic night for a few months..." She gave Dan a small smile "But since then I've been uploading stuff online, my channel has taken off pretty well... it's not major big, but it's doing well... I've had a lot of help from Dan's friends..."  
"Surprised you haven't done anything together" Joseph mumbled, taking another bite of his food. Catherine could feel Dan tense beside her, so she quickly answered.  
"We're working on something... we want it to be special... being a couple's collab and all..." She smiled, taking Dan's hand.  
"You writing anything?" The older man asked, looking up at his daughter again.  
"Yeah... few things, but I wanna record them properly... Dan's got better recording stuff than me, so as soon as I'm up for it, I'm gonna go to his office..." Her smile falling a little. "My voice is still pretty weak after the accident, though..."  
"I told you, I'll take you to my voice coach... He's really nice, me and Mark see the same guy" Dan mumbled, squeezing her hand.  
"You guys would work really well together... music wise, I mean" Joseph smiled. The couple turned to each other a little and smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a happier chapter
> 
> Just one thing... WHERE HAS ALL THE SINGING GONE???


	45. 1up = Erection

Catherine's dad didn't stay long, only a few days to make sure she was okay. In the short time, the three of them hung out in LA, visiting a few places Joseph hadn't seen before. He even got to meet Arin and Suzy when they stopped by one afternoon. They showed Catherine's dad Starbomb and almost brought him to tears with how hard he was laughing.  
It was interesting for Dan to see the way Catherine lit up when her Dad talked to her when he praised her work and did things with her. It almost made him sad that she lived all the way on the other side of the country from him.  
The couple drove Joseph back to the airport, Catherine tearing up a little as they said their goodbyes.  
"Let me help you with your bags" Dan smiled, grabbing his suitcase and wheeling it to the check in, Catherine got back into the car, her leg hurting after being out and about for a few days.  
"Thank you for looking after her..." Joseph smiled as they got inside.   
"There's no need to thank me, honestly..." Dan mumbled, smiling back at the older man. "I'm doing it because I really care about her..."  
"I can see that" the older man nodded, pushing his hands into his pockets. "I can see the way she looks at you too, she really loves you... Just don't let me hear that you've broken her heart"  
"I will really do my best, sir..." Dan smiled weakly.  
"Because Catherine's right... I may be all big and threatening... but her mother is a force to be reckoned with..." He chuckled "You'll have to come and meet her, she'll be asking me about you when I get back"  
"Well, I'll talk to Cat about it" Dan smiled "She still needs to meet my parents"  
"It's been really cool getting to know you, Dan" He smiled, placing a hand on the younger man's shoulder.  
"It's been cool meeting you too" Dan nodded in agreement.  
"Well I better get going, I'll hopefully see you two soon" Joseph hummed, taking his bags and going off to check in.

"Hey, you" Dan smiled, climbing back into the car.  
"Hey," Catherine sighed back.  
"You okay?" Her boyfriend mumbled, taking her hand.  
"Yeah... just sad seeing my dad go... kinda makes me homesick..." She muttered back, leaning to rest her head on his shoulder.  
"I understand" Dan hummed, kissing the top of her head. "You wanna head home or go see Arin?"  
"Do you have work to do?" Catherine asked, glancing up at him.  
"Yeah, we got a session booked this afternoon..." Dan sighed.  
"Then yeah, we'll go to the space... Can I grab my laptop first?"   
"Sure" Dan smiled, pulling out of the parking lot and driving back to her apartment.  
"You've got a convention soon, right?" Catherine asked, climbing out of the car seat and limping into the house.  
"You wanna change into something more comfortable?" Dan hummed, following her into the bedroom.  
"You wanna help me?" Catherine smirked, playing with the bottom of her top. Dan grinned, biting his lip a little as he wandered over to her.  
"You sure you wanna play this game?" he growled, running his hands down her arms.  
"I don't know what you mean" she pouted innocently. "I just want some help changing my clothes..."  
"Hm... go pick something out then" he purred, sitting down on the bed and playing with the button of his jeans. He wanted to put something a little more comfortable on for his session anyway, no reason why he couldn't play along with his girlfriend.  
Catherine spent a few minutes rummaging around in the drawers until she pulled out a pair of shorts and an oversized jumper. She hobbled back and stood in front of him, placing the clothes down on the bed.  
"You gonna help me or just enjoy the view?" She smiled.  
"Oh, that's an option?" Dan grinned, sitting up and placing his hands on her hips. She slapped his cheek playfully and watched as he undid her skirt, sliding it down her legs and lingering too long on her thighs, running back up to play with the waistband of her underwear.  
"Do I need to change these too?" Catherine mumbled, biting her lip a little as he ran his fingers along her folds through the thin fabric.  
"I don't know, baby girl, do you?" Dan growled softly, Catherine cringing a little.  
"Uhh..." she groaned, pulling back a little. "Maybe.. lay off that nickname for a little while..."  
"Ah shit" Dan frowned, pulling his hands back as he realized that her dad had been calling her that all weekend.  
"It's fine" Catherine smiled, shuffling over to sit on the bed.  
"Sorry..." Dan sighed, feeling like he'd ruined the mood.  
"No, it's fine, really... My leg is killing" She chuckled. "You really do need to help me..." Dan smirked, moving to kneel between her legs, playing with under underwear again.  
"Want me to make it up to you?" he hummed, spreading her legs a little more.  
"Dan..." She sighed quietly "What time do you have to be at work?"  
"Don't worry about it, kitten, we got time" he groaned, leaning in to kiss the inside of her thighs. He slides his hands up further to rest on her hips and presses his mouth to her through her underwear, making the fabric wet enough to cling to her skin. His mouth is hot, and her whole body trembles at the wet press of his tongue. Catherine moves a hand down to his hair, playing with the thick curls and holding him close as his stubble scratches the skin that isn't covered by her panties. She doesn’t know if she wants to spread her legs out further or press her thighs together and hold his head there.  
Suddenly Dadn's phone goes off in his pocket, making both of them jump. He pulled his mouth away with an annoyed groan, pulling it out to check who was calling.  
"Bitch..." he growled, wiping his mouth and answering. "What's up?" he mumbled, trying not to sound too pissed off.  
"Hey man, we're filming today, just wanted to check up on you" Arin hummed on the other end, Dan just glaring at Catherine's stomach like it was his friend's face.  
"Yeah, I'm still coming man... I'm just at Cat's doing some stuff" he huffed, sitting back a little.  
"That's cool, is she coming?" Arin hummed, oblivious to what he'd interrupted.  
"Probably not, now..." Dan mumbled under his breath.  
"What?" Arin asked a little louder, unable to hear Dan.  
"I mean, yeah, she's coming down" Dan sighed, grabbing Catherine's shorts. He moved his gaze back to his girlfriend and his breath caught in his throat as he watched Catherine rubbing herself through her underwear, her head had fallen back and her mouth was open in a silent moan. Dan let out a quiet growl, tearing his eyes away.  
"You okay?" Arin frowned, snapping Dan out of his thoughts.  
"Yeah, man... Just..." He huffed, turning away from his girlfriend. There was no way he was going to be able to focus on the grump session with that mental image, he had to do something before they left the house. "Dude, we're gonna be running a little late..."  
"Why?" Arin frowned, Dan just wishing he could tell his friend the truth, but he wouldn't embarrass Catherine like that... On the other hand, if she didn't know he'd told her...  
"Dude, the game we're playing right now, Peach isn't in another castle, and she's kinda... baked a cake for Luigi," He said quickly, hoping that Catherine wasn't paying too much attention.  
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Arin chuckled on the other end.  
"She picked Luigi... you know..." Dan huffed, realizing that maybe what he'd said was a little too obscure.  
"I... have no idea what you're talking about, dude, I'm sorry" Arin was still chuckling as Dan tried to think of another a way to explain it, but if he shifted innuendos, Catherine might work it out. "Yeah, dude, Peach chose Luigi and gave him a 1up" Arin was very quiet for a moment until.  
"Oh shit!" He shouted, Dan pulling the phone away from his ear for a second. "Oh fuck, dude... uh, gross? But sorry... fuck, I'll see you guys later..." And with that, he hung up. Dan sighed, putting his phone on the bed and turning back to his girlfriend who was glaring at him.  
"Hey," he smiled shyly, turning to face her properly.  
"Get changed, we're going to the grump space..." She huffed, trying not to smile.  
"What?" Dan frowned, his shoulders slumping a little.  
"You're such a bitch, get changed" She grinned, shoving him away and grabbing her shorts to pull them on.  
"Oh come on, I embarrassed myself like that and you're just gonna leave me like this?" He almost whined.  
"Yup..." She hummed, pulling on her jumper and getting to her feet.  
"Do I, at least, get a kiss?" He pouted, still kneeling on the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The puns actually fucking hurt me... but I was listening to Luigi's Ballad and I had to XD I'm sorry


	46. Rub some dirt on it

"Dude, I'm so sorry" Arin sighed as Dan walked into the recording room. "Next time, just don't answer your phone, I won't mind..."  
"Shut up..." The older man huffed, sitting down on the couch.  
"What's up?" Arin frowned "I said I'm sorry... I didn't know I was interrupting anything... you weren't like... in the middle of- no nevermind, I don't want to think about it" He said, quickly screwing his eyes shut.  
"You didn't interrupt anything" Dan mumbled, his cheeks starting to turn pink.  
"Then why are you all huffy?" Arin pouted.  
"Dude, shut up!" Dan gasped, throwing his hands up in frustration. The younger man stared at his friend for a moment before his eyebrows shot up.  
"Oh my god, she understood your whole Mario bullshit didn't she!" He giggled, clapping his hands together. "She understood and she made you walk it off!"  
"Shut up" Dan growled, a smile tugging at his lips, he really was not happy with the situation.  
"Dude oh my god" Arin almost cackled. "Oh my god, I really wish I could've seen that... but not, because you were trying to get frisky..."  
"Dude!" Dan snapped, slapping his friend's arm.

"What are those witches laughing about in there?" Suzy mumbled, looking up from her laptop. She'd set herself up next to Cat on the couch.  
"Me and Dan were having some fun, then he ruined it so I told him to go rub some dirt on it..." The older woman smirked, glancing at her friend.  
"Oh my god, you're evil" Suzy grinned "What did he do?"  
"He was on the phone to your man and started making Mario innuendos, thinking I wouldn't work it out..." Catherine mumbled, scrolling through some of the comments on a random video of hers.  
"Moron" Suzy giggled, shaking her head. "They're gonna be in there for a while, you wanna help me plan stuff for our trip?"  
"Trip?" Catherine blinked.  
"Dan didn't tell you?" Suzy frowned, looking up from her laptop.  
"No?" the older girl frowned back. "What?"  
"He said you were coming" Suzy pouted. "We have a convention in like two month's time, it's gonna be awesome... we're gonna book group rooms, this place has got adjoining ones, so we'd all be together... man" She gave a quiet huff and turned back to her computer.  
"Well, when is it?" Catherine said quickly.  
"I don't know... it might be too short notice for your work... but it's okay, we can work something out for the next one" Suzy sighed, looking very crestfallen.  
"Well..." Catherine frowned, pulling out her phone. "Doesn't hurt to ask? I was... kinda going to ask for my hours to be cut down anyway..."  
"What?" asked Suzy, her eyebrows raising.  
"Well... I was thinking about cutting down my hours at work so I could work harder with my youtube projects... I've had fans telling me to start selling stuff on iTunes, and I want to start doing more professional videos like the one with Mark..."  
"That's a really big decision, Cat..." Suzy mumbled, "Do you have any definites right now if you do cut down your hours?"  
"No, but I've worked it out and I'd still be able to afford rent and stuff on a lower salary... I'm not worried about that. The place I rent is mega cheap... it's a shoebox" Her friend assured her.  
"Still..." Suzy mumbled, pulling up a page that Catherine couldn't read from her seat. "Have you thought about doing voice acting?..."  
"No?" Catherine frowned, leaning in a little. "Why?"  
"This would be something to talk to Arin about, but I think what with your vocal stuff, you'd be great for it. You have this crazy range to your voice... Writing your own stuff and selling tracks on iTunes or something is another good way to go... or you could make stuff and sell them with me in my store! Oh my gosh! Why didn't I think of that before? You're crazy good at making clothes..."  
"Suze, breathe!" Catherine gasped, grabbing her shoulder. "These are all super ideas!" She couldn't help giggled at her friend's excitement.  
"I'm just so excited, there's so much big stuff going on with everyone!" She squeaked.  
"Shit if Dan proposed, you'd have a heart attack" Catherine smirked, leaning back on the sofa, seeing Suzy's eyes blow wide.  
"Oh, my gosh have you two been talking about it?!" She almost screamed, grabbing Barry and Kevin's attention.  
"talking about what?" Kevin blinked, popping his head up from behind his monitors.  
"Nothing!" Catherine hissed. "Shush!"  
"About these two getting hitched!" Suzy grinned, sitting up straighter.  
"Oh, that would be sweet" Barry smiled, wheeling his chair into view.  
"Oh my god, everyone calm down, we haven't been talking about it!" Catherine groaned, covering her face.

Catherine sent an email to her boss about hopefully going on holiday, even if it meant she flew home early or joined the group at a later time. She wanted to be there for Dan, especially after they'd just gone public with their relationship.  
After their session, Arin and Dan appeared, red-faced and worn out from Mario Maker.  
"You're an ass" Dan growled in Ross's direction as he shuffled over to his girlfriend.  
"How come you didn't tell me about the convention?" Catherine blinked as he wrapped his arms around her.  
"Ah... babe, so much stuff was going on. I was totally going to ask you about it, though..." he yawned "Is it too late to book time off?"  
"She's asked, but a bit more notice would've been good" Suzy frowned, reaching out to her husband for a hug.  
"If you can't come, it's all good... You can catch the next one. I've got a gig just before my album comes out..." He rambled on.  
"Wait when's that?" Catherine asked, looking up at him.  
"Seriously?" Suzy blinked.  
"Dude, do you tell her anything?" Arin huffed, shaking his head.  
"Stuff came up!" Dan groaned. "Can we go home? I'm fucking beat..." Catherine sighed, reaching up to play with his mop of hair.  
"You really that tired, Sexbang?" She smirked, feeling him tense up a little.  
"Uh..." he swallowed, smiling down at her. "I might feel a little better once I've got some fresh air..."  
"What are you guys talking about?" Arin smiled, almost barging into them.  
"Wedding plans" Barry muttered with a grin as he rushed towards the door.  
"What?" Dan blinked, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise.  
"Shut up!" Catherine gasped, looking over at the younger man.  
"What is he talking about?" Dan mumbled, looking down at his girlfriend.  
"Nothing! He's being an ass" Catherine whined.  
"Are you guys getting hitched?" Arin grinned, teasing her.  
"No" She huffed, smacking his arm.  
"Ow," He yelped, turning to his wife for help.  
"No, you're being an ass" Suzy smirked, wandering off to get her coat.  
"What were you guys talking about?" Dan mumbled, looking down at her again.  
"It's nothing... they were being stupid earlier..." Catherine explained.  
"Okay," He smiled, taking her hand. "Let's get going... do you want to pick up anything to eat?"  
"We've got some pizza in the fridge if you wanna just crash" She shrugged, pulling him towards the door.  
"Man, you're perfect" He smirked, following her down the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys sorry for the long break :(  
> I had my surgery!!! I'm recovering right now, so I should (in theory) be able to get some work done.  
> Hopefully this means no more problems :)
> 
> I hope you guys liked this, it's a bit of a filler, some good things are coming.  
> I just feel bad that this is kinda meh after so long. I'm writing more right now! I promise!


	47. Wake up call

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's sexy stuff in this chapter

"What were the guys talking about earlier?" Dan mumbled, taking a bite of his reheated pizza.  
"Huh?" Catherine said through her mouthful.  
"About wedding stuff..." He huffed, turning to her. "Were you really talking about stuff?"  
"No, not at all... Suzy was flipping out about work stuff and the future, and I made a joke that everyone took literally..." Catherine explained, shrugging a little. There was a strange silence for a moment before Dan spoke again.  
"Because... I wouldn't mind if you did talk about that stuff..." He muttered, looking back at his food. Catherine blinked and turned to her boyfriend.  
"Really?" She asked.  
"Well... I thought I would feel weird about it... but I guess I was just a little surprised when Barry said something..." he explained. "But... no, I didn't mind the thought of you talking about it..."  
"Huh..." Catherine smiled, linking their hands. "I don't mind the thought of us talking about it either..."  
"Cool..." Dan blushed, leaning in to kiss her cheek. "By the sounds of it, the others have already been talking about it..."  
"I think Suzy's had venues booked since we started dating" Catherine giggled, shifting so she was leaning against him.  
"Would... what would you say if I proposed?" Dan asked quietly, wrapping his arms around her.  
"Is that a shitty way of asking me?" Catherine mumbled against his shirt as she snuggled closer.  
"No, god no..." Dan giggled, shaking his head.  
"Good..." she sighed, pulling back to look at him for a moment. "Because we really have not been together that long..."  
"So you'd say no?" Dan frowned a little.  
"When you propose to me, I will say yes... But I don't think you want to ask me yet" Catherine smiled, resting back against him.  
"No..." Dan agreed, quickly adding. "Not yet at least... I want time to plan something super special... you won't see it coming"  
"I believe you" His girlfriend yawned, feeling herself start to doze off.  
"Hey, little miss... you can't sleep here" He smiled, nudging her.  
"Mmm comfy" she whined, burrowing into his jumper.  
"No, no... Up we get" He grinned, sitting up and bringing her with him. "I was supposed to be the sleepy one, I remember someone teasing me for it"  
"Do what you want, just don't get it in my hair" Catherine yawned loudly, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Dan gave a bark of laughter as he got to his feet, pulling Catherine up and shuffling her towards the bedroom.  
"Hmm... if we rest up tonight, we can have amazing morning sex" He chuckled, leading them over to the bed, stopping to pull Catherine's hoodie off of her and letting her fall back onto the pillows. He quickly shed his own clothes, pulling back the covers and climbing under, snuggling up to his girlfriend.

Sadly, the next morning they were woken by Dan's phone going off.  
"Ohh what?!" Dan snapped, reaching over to his jeans to answer it. He glanced at the screen, not really registering who is was as he held it to his ear.  
"What is it, Arin?" Dan sighed, more to tell Catherine who was on the other end.  
"Tell him to fuck off" she giggled, climbing onto her boyfriend.  
"He says fuck off back..." Dan huffed, not bothering to open his eyes. Catherine smirked, kissing Dan's chest as they started to talk about something work related.  
"What are you up to?" Dan chuckled suddenly, glancing down.  
"Nothing" Catherine hummed innocently.  
"Shut up, mind your own business" Dan snapped at his phone. "No, I'm fine, keep talking..." Catherine waited for a while, just tracing lazy patterns on his skin before starting to kiss again, working her way down his stomach and abdomen. When he reached the waistband of his boxers, the older man gave her a worried glance but didn't break his conversation with his friend as she started to pull the garment down.  
"If Catherine can get the time off, she can have a room with Suze..." He sighed, lifting his hips a little to help his girlfriend. "I can't imagine she'd want to share with any of the other guys..." Dan was already half hard, the risk of doing something when on the phone to his friend hadn't done anything to turn him off, it had actually made him harder. "Dude I'd never live it down if I booked us a separate room... you and Suze don't even get a separate room..." Catherine waited until Dan had stopped talking for a moment before she wrapped her hand around his length, just teasing the base with her thumb before tightening her grip a little, starting with lazy strokes. Her boyfriend gave a small gasp but quickly played it off with a small yawn, just humming in agreement to whatever Arin was talking about.  
"I uh..." Dan swallowed, his hand reaching down to curl his fingers around Catherine's, not to move them away, but moving them a little, his hips almost bucking into the touch before he moved away again. "Sorry, I don't know man... talk to Suze... What about the panel?" He didn't know why he was trying to prolong the call, but there was something so good about this. Catherine continued to stroke him the way he had shown her but wanted to heat things up a little more. She pulled herself up on her elbows and leaned in, dragging her tongue accross the head, feeling him jump a little.  
"Fuck" Dan hissed, biting down on his hand quickly. "I mean... man they better plan it better than last time" he huffed, his hand moving down again, Catherine thought to push her away this time, but his fingers suddenly tangled themselves in her hair. That was a good enough invitation to continue so he lowered her head again, taking just the tip into her mouth, swirling her tongue over and over his slit.  
"Hmm... that's cool" Dan groaned, she could feel his legs tensing beneath her, trying not to buck up into her mouth. She took another inch in, already hollowing her cheeks a little to tease before pulling up again to glance at his flushed face. "All of that sounds good" Dan mumbled, quickly losing the little focus he had on his friend as Catherine went down once more, taking more in, this time, her hand wrapped around what her lips didn't cover, her tongue working the veins on the underside of his cock. "Man, I gotta go, I'll call you later" Dan almost snapped, hanging up and throwing his phone aside, not really caring where it landed. Catherine now able to suck him properly, her head bobbing as she moaned softly, sending pleasant tingles through her boyfriend.  
"Ohh fuck, baby girl" Dan almost whimpered, his other hand tangling in her hair as he guided her movements, not pushing her down too far. "So fucking good..."  
Catherine gave a more exaggerated moan, sending harder vibrations through his dick, causing his hips to twitch.  
"So fucking naughty... trying to catch me out like that..." he panted as Catherine started to bob her head faster, hollowing her cheeks once more and feeling his body shake beneath her to keep control.  
"Oh god... baby, I'm not gonna last long if you keep that up" The older man moaned, biting his lip as he tugged a little on her hair, his girlfriend only moaning in response, her hand now moving to fondle his balls as she sank lower. Dan was losing himself so easily in the feeling, his eyes losing focus as he watched her rise again before her lips slid halfway down his cock and then back up. She stopped to suck and tongue at the head before taking his cock in again. Dan groaned softly as she almost reached the base, just pausing for a moment, swallowing around him. Dan could feel the ache in his balls as he grew close, still trying not to buck his hips when suddenly Catherine's mouth disappeared, pulling a whine from the older man.  
"So fucking hot like this" she growled, her voice hoarse now for a different reason. "Bet you wanna cum so badly after yesterday..." Dan just growled, his head falling back. "Tell me how much you want it"  
"So fucking much, Cat, please" he begged, his cock aching almost painfully from the loss of contact.  
"What if I just left you like this? Needy and fucking desperate to cum..." She growled, running her nails down his thighs, watching the red marks appear on his pale skin.  
"Please," he sighed, reaching up to play with the band of her shorts. Catherine smirked, pushing them down her hips, lifting each knee to remove them before straddling his lap.  
"You're lucky I want you so badly" She growled, taking hold of his dick and teasing it against her lips, watching as her boyfriend screwed his eyes shut, feeling how wet she was.  
"Fuck... Cat" he groaned, his hands reaching up to rest on her hips.  
The younger woman guided him to her entrance and slid down slowly, her quiet moan drowned out by Dan's whine.  
"Oh fuck, baby girl" he muttered, his fingers digging into her skin.  
"Missed this" Catherine grinned, seating herself fully in his lap. After a moment of adjusting, she lifted her hips and slammed back down, repeating the action slowly, at first, rocking her hips as she bottomed out.  
"So good..." Dan gasped, his hips lifting to meet her.  
"Danny" Catherine whimpered as she picked up the pace and lifted higher off his dick.  
"Not gonna last, babe" he swallowed, already feeling his orgasm building fast. "Teased me so much..."  
"S'okay" His girlfriend smiled, resting her hands on his chest as she rode him, circling her hips now, feeling him grinding against her g-spot.  
Dan's hands moved round to Catherine’s ass, grabbing and squeezing tightly as she leaned herself back, her walls tightening around him.  
"You getting close too?" Dan panted, feeling his balls draw up in readiness.  
"Yeah," his girlfriend nodded, resuming the bouncing she had done before. The older man gasped, his hips bucking up again, his control quickly slipping as he felt the beginnings of his orgasm.  
"Oh shit, I'm about to..." He choked, his fingers gripping her harder as he pulled her down, thrusting into her as deep as he could, letting out a grunt as he spilled inside her. Catherine smiled, seeing Dan's face contort with pleasure and then relax, her clit throbbing almost painfully from neglect. It took the older man a moment, but he then opened his eyes, looking up at his girlfriend with a smile, one hand moving from her ass to play with the small bundle of nerves, his hips rocking a little where he was still half hard inside her.  
"Ohh fuck" She gasped, her hand moving to meet his, pressing a little firmer as she rode him. "Really close" She warned, watching him bite back a moan as her muscles squeezed his now oversensitive cock. "Fuck... love you"  
"Love you too" Dan grinned, picking up the pace a little, feeling her walls clamp down on him somehow tighter as she cried out. After a few seconds, Catherine relaxed, falling forwards to rest on his chest, regaining her breath.  
"That was amazing..." She giggled "You think Arin's gonna be mad?"  
"I don't care" Dan chuckled back, running a hand through her hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [EDIT]
> 
> I didn't realize that I had written this chapter, then I wrote more, it changed, I'm sorry. But there you go. Sex.


End file.
